al^Uv .'. . ''W; >.'1'. n.vT^'l .'./ •'""^^'': ' ;st^ll^)^4';'''V"V K'^^VM^ Wisconsin Magazine i of History

Was McCarthy A Political Heir of La Follette? DAVID A. SHANNON Illustrating the Civil War WILLIAM FLETCHER THOMPSON, JR. Visions of Metropolis: William Gilpin's Theories CHARLES N. GLAAB William F. Vilas As A Businessman ROY N. LOKKEN Annual Proceedings, 1960-1961

Published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. XLV, No. 1 / Autumn, 1961 STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Director

Officers WILLIAM B. HESSELTINE, President GEOHCE C. SELLERY, Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President GEOHGE HAMI'EL, JR., Treasurer E. E. HOMSTAD, Second Vice-President LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Secretary

Board of Curators Ex-Officio GAYLORD NELSON, Governor of the State MRS. DENA A. SMITH, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM, President of the IJniversity ANGUS B. ROTHWELL, Superintendent of Public Instruction MRS. SILAS SPENGLER, President of the Women's Auxiliary

Term Expires 1962 GEORGE BANTA, JR. HERBERT V. KOHLER WILLIAM ¥. STARK JOHN TORINUS Menasha Kohler Pewaukee Green Bay GEORGE HAMPEL, JR. ROBERT B. L. MURPHY STANLEY STONE CLARK WILKINSON Milwaukee Madison Milwaukee Baraboo SANFORD HERZOG GERTRUDE PUELICHER MILO K. SWANTON ANTHONY WISE Minocqua Milwaukee Madison Hayward

Term Expires 1963 SCOTT CUTLIP MRS. ROBERT FRIEND JOHN C. GEILFUSS WILLIAM B. HESSELTINE Madison Hartland Milwaukee Madison W. NORMAN FITZGERALD EDWARD FROMM MRS. HOWARD T. GREENE JAMES RILEY Milwaukee Hamburg Genesee Depot Eau Claire J. F. FRIEDRICK ROBERT GEHRKE DR. GUNNAR GUNDERSEN CLIFFORD SWANSON Milwaukee Ripon La Crosse Stevens Point

Term Expires 1964 THOMAS H. BARLAND JIM DAN HILL MRS. VINCENT W. KOCH FRED I. OLSON Eau Claire Superior Janesville Milwaukee M. J. DYRUD E. E. HOMSTAD MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK SAMMOND Prairie du Chien Black River J'alls Madison Milwaukee FRED H. HARRINGTON GEORGE F. KASTEN CHARLES MANSON WILLIAM STOVALL Madison Milwaukee Madison Madison

Honorary Honorary Life Members WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, Winnipeg PRESTON E. MCNALL, Madison MRS. LITTA BASCOM, Madison DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison MRS. LOUISE ROOT, Prairie du Chien Fellows Curators VERNON CARSTENSEN (1949) HJALMAR R. HCJLAND, Ephraim MERLE CURTI (1949) SAMUEL PEDRICK, Ripon

The Women's Auxiliary OFFICERS MRS. SILAS SPENGLER, Menasha, President MRS. MILLARD TUFTS, Milwaukee, Vice-President MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee, Secretary MRS. E. J. BIEVER, Kohler, Treasurer MRS. CHESTER ENGELKING, Green Bay, Assistant Treasurer MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES, Madison, Ex-Officio VOLUME 45, NUMBER 1/AUTUMN, 1961 Wisconsin Magazine listory

Editor: WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD

Walking Around the Building . . . Again 2

Was McCarthy a Political Heir of La Follette? 3 DAVID A. SHANNON

Illustrating the Civil War 10 WILLIAM FLETCHER THOMPSON, JR.

Visions of Metropolis: William Gilpin and Theories of City Growth in the American West 21 CHARLES N. GLAAB

William F. Vilas as a Businessman 32 ROY N. LOKKEN

Richard Upjohn, Architect: Anglican Chapels in the Wilderness 40 RICHARD W. E. PERRIN

Proceedings of the One Hundred and Fifteenth Annual Business Meeting of the State Historical Society 44

Readers' Choice 67

Contributors 76

Published Quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published not assume responsibility for statements made by contribu­ quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 tors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin. State Street, Madison 6, Wisconsin. Distributed to members Copyright 1961 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. as part of their dues (Annual membershii^, $5.00; Family Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial membership, $7.00; Contributing, $10; Business and Profes­ Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. Wisconsin news­ sional, $25; Life, $100; Sustaining, $100 or more annually; papers may reprint any article appearing in the WISCON­ Patron, $1000 or more annually). Single numbers, $1.25. SIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY providing the story carries Microfilmed copies available through University Microfilms, the following credit line: Reprinted from the State Histori­ 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Communica­ cal Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History for [insert the tions should be addressed to the editor. The Society does season and year which appear on the Magazine^ . Walking Around the Building...Again

Only the distinguished editor of this Maga­ nual report elsewhere in this issue. zine and I remember that a year ago I took It is not too long a walk from the stack areas a walk around the building in this space. I and the research offices up to the Museum enjoyed the walk and want to do it again, workshop. The exhibits which the Museum although it is not significant that the second staff create are based on intensive research excursion occurs on the anniversary of the to assure authenticity and realism. Take as first. an example the "Wisconsin Legislature, 18.36- Let's mosey around the stacks first. Wheth­ 1961" exhibit (you will have to walk down er you go into the archives stacks in the south to the first floor to see it). Weeks of just wing or the book and manuscripts stacks to plain digging went into this exhibit. Members the north, you will have an immediate sense of the Museum staff combed the legislative of being surrounded. New shelving—in places journals, manuscript materials in the archives, which our illustrious predecessors never and collections of letters, papers, and books meant shelving to go—blocks aisles and win­ in the library. Once the outlines of the ex­ dow lighting. The shelving is an unhappy hibit had been determined, another search necessity since the alternative is piling boxes proceeded for the proper artifacts to illustrate on the floor. We will have to live with them the exhibit. It is, by the way, a fine exhibit until we acquire additional library space. which we are leaving up for the fall and winter season, primarily because our school Quite naturally, we ought to walk over to tours will use it. see how our shelved materials are being used. Our best customers are the faculty members For after school hours, Miss Joan Morgan, of innumerable University departments, their the Museum's curator of education, is design­ graduate students, and visiting scholars, but ing two series of six one-hour programs on all users benefit from the help of the Research Saturday mornings for youngsters from the Office. Here, under the direction of Miss fourth to the eighth grade. The first one will Alice E. Smith, you can see the beginnings of begin on October 21 and the second in the an exciting new project. Some years ago, the spring. Society began a survey of the records held The first series will explore "Our World in by the major businesses in the state, and Prehistoric Times" through special movies we have set to work on it again. Mrs. Mar- and artifacts. It will be a wonderful oppor­ cia McGill has the direct responsibility for tunity for youngsters to get a close look at the project which is an attempt to deter­ the world of thousands of years ago. Walk mine by geography or industry whether in with your children or grandchildren or there are enough records available for nieces and nephews on these Saturdays at historians to use. Do we have enough 10:30 A.M. material to do a study of Wisconsin's Whether you walk in on Saturday morning woolen mills or a book about the industries or Monday night, you will get a number of of the famed Fox River Valley? These and clear impressions of the Society and the comparable problems occupy Mrs. McGill building. If you follow your fascinations with these days as she searches for answers in the abandon, you might be struck with the pain­ stacks, in her office, or on location in busi­ ful impression of foot fatigue! But heavy- nesses around the state. footed humor aside, there are other impres­ But neither Mrs. McGill nor the Society can sions which emerge from walking around do the job alone. Once located, the records the building. It's clean and it's spacious (al­ have to be made available, processed, cata­ though the space is filling up). It's large but logued, and shelved in a fireproof and con­ not confusing. It houses a group of profes­ venient location. There are more subjects for sional and non-professional staff members study here than one institution can handle. who think enough of the Society to do more TO continue the job properly, we will need the than what is expected of them. It is a real co-operation and financial assistance of Wis­ treasure house. Walk around and see if you consin industry and . . . well, 1 ruminate don't agree. about finances in my introduction to the an­ L.H.F., ,IR. WAS MCCARTHY A POLITICAL HEIR OF LA FOLLETTE?

BY DAVID A. SHANNON Hofstadter put forward his thesis quite tentatively and with numerous qualifications. To find a good quotation to sum him up is difficult, but the following perhaps will suf­ ISTORY as actuality does not change. fice : ".. .my own interest has been drawn to Whatever the past was, it remains as it H that side of Populism and Progressivism. .. was. This is so obvious that it seems unneces­ which seems very strongly to foreshadow some sary to state it. But, almost as obviously, writ­ aspects of the cranky pseudo-conservatism of ten history does change. Historians' percep­ our time. Somewhere along the way a large tions of actual history change as the lenses part of the Populist-Progressive tradition has through which they view the past change. turned sour, become illiberal and ill- This article examines a recent interpretation tempered. . .. What I have tried to do.. .is of Senator Robert Marion La Follette, Sr., to show that this process of deconversion from and his political movement in Wisconsin. The reform to reaction did not require the intro­ interpretation of La Follette is part of a larger duction of anything wholly new into the politi­ interpretation of Populism and Midwestern cal sensibilities of the American public but Progressivism. only a development of certain tendencies that Most simply and briefly put, this interpreta­ had existed all along, particularly in the Mid­ tion holds that what came to be called dle West and the South."" McCarthyism in the early 1950's had its Quite obviously, Professor Hofstadter had origins in Populism and Midwestern Progres­ a new lens. To see Populists and Midwestern sivism. Easily the most sophisticated and Progressives as precursors of mid-twentieth suggestive of the writings advancing this century "cranky pseudo-conservatism" was a general interpretation is The Age of Reform: new idea. The milieu in which Hofstadter From Bryan to F.D.R., by Professor Richard thought and produced his interesting written Hofstadter of Columbia University.' This history affected his vision of history as actual­ volume, which won both the Pulitzer and ity. He was worried by McCarthyism, as Bancroft prizes, has had an enormous effect were millions who thought of themselves as upon the thinking of many historians. It has liberal intellectuals. Hofstadter was well changed some people's minds; it has caused aware that the environment in which he lived others to think about recent American history influenced the way he saw the past: "I am in new ways even if they do not accept its fully aware of the dangers of overemphasizing basic interpretations. here the resemblances and the continuities be­ tween the currents of political feeling that trouble liberals today and their counterparts in earlier reform movements—the danger of

^ New York, Knopf, 1955, reprinted by Vintage Books, 1960. Subsequent citations are to the Vintage edition. Uhid., 20. becoming too present-minded to have a sound sense of historical veracity, of pushing an in­ sight beyond the bounds of its valid applica­ tion. Populism, for all its zany fringes, was not an unambiguous forerunner of modern authoritarian movements; nor was Progres­ sivism. . .an unambiguous harbinger of our most troublesome contemporary delusions." He hoped his book would stimulate further studies of American reform movements and not be understood as an attempt at final judg­ ment." Other and less cautious writers, however, accepted Hofstadter's view completely and University of Wisconsin Archives applied it to concrete situations without quali­ La Follette in 1879 as winner of a student oratorical fication. In a book that attacked federal contest at the University of Wisconsin. and state internal security measures, Edward A. Shils declared flatly, "McCarthy is the heir phrases and in the general tone of the vol­ of La Follette." At another point Shils threw ume."" his net wide to drag in a considerable collec­ Let us look at Goldman's specific state­ tion of what were to him historically suspicious ments before going on to the more general characters: "There is a straight line from question of a connection between La Follette Ben Tillman to Huey Long and Eugene Tal- and McCarthy. The assertion that La Follette madge; from Bryan and La Follette to "exalted 'the people' over the educated and the Gerald L. K. Smith, Father Coughlin, and expert" simply does not fit the historical Senator McCarthy, Gerald Nye, William evidence. La Follette, perhaps more than any Langer and many others."* Professor Eric other figure in twentieth-century political his­ Goldman of Princeton University in reviewing tory, was responsible for the now generally a new edition of La Follette's Autobiography accepted practice of government office-holders wrote: "After all, the political succession in seeking the advice and drawing upon the re­ Wisconsin has been Robert La Follette, the searches of academic experts. He brought La Follette sons, and then, of all people, Joseph about "a wedding between soil and seminar" R. McCarthy. Pondering this, historians have that was the essence of the "Wisconsin Idea." recently been noting connections between President Charles R. Van Hise's faculty at La FoUette-type progressivism and McCarthy- the University of Wisconsin, especially Pro­ type rightism, particularly the way both move­ fessor John R. Commons and Professor ments exalted 'the people' over the educated Charles McCarthy, worked intimately with and the expert, tended to explain everything La Follette and other leaders in the La Follette that was wrong in terms of a conspiracy of wing of the Wisconsin Republican party. Many upper-class Easterners, and showed a slam- people saw something symbolic in the fact bang impatience to root out 'evil' without too that Madison's State Street ran between the much regard for who or what might be campus and the state capitol. trampled in the process." He also wrote that Nor does the evidence support the statement he "sensed" a connection between La Follette that La Follette "tended to explain everything and McCarthy when rereading La Follette's that was wrong in terms of a conspiracy of autobiography "in the thrust of particular upper-class Easterners." One can not cite negative evidence, but one looks in vain through his autobiography, his speeches, and

'Ibid., 22. •"Edward A. Shils, The Torment of Secrecy: The Background and Consequences of American Security '^ New York Times Book Review Section, January Policies (The Free Press, Glencoe, Illinois, 1956), 15, 1961, p. 20. See also "Letters to the Editor," 97, 103. ibid., March 5, 1961, pp. 42-43. and comparative. The questions to be ad­ dressed are these: Did McCarthy and La Follette have a similarity in their political positions? Was there a similarity in their styles and methods? Was there a similarity in the nature of their political support? If the evidence supports an affirmative answer to these questions, then we may accept the hypo­ thesis as true. It is exceedingly difficult to build a case for any similarity between the political posi­ tions that Senators La Follette and McCarthy took. In foreign policy. La Follette was a neutralist—at least after he achieved political Marquette University Archives power within Wisconsin. He denounced the McCarthy as a member of the 19,33 boxing squad at Marquette University. "dollar diplomacy" of both the Taft and Wil­ son administrations, criticized demands for a powerful naval-military establishment, and his magazine editorials for a conspiracy opposed American entrance into World theory. That some of his supporters had a War I.' McCarthy did not specifically advo­ paranoid conspiracy theory is undoubtedly cate war, but he was a noisy supporter of an true, but the evidence does not support the aggressive policy against the Soviet Union and assertion that La Follette interpreted the Communist China. Rather than opposing the world in such terms. In writing his long auto­ world war of his generation, he enlisted early biography he used the term "Wall Street" in the conflict and exploited his war record just twice, one of the times in a quotation as a political candidate in his unsuccessful from George W. Perkins; and among those primary candidacy of 1944 and his successful who saw conspiracies "Wall Street" was the election in 1946.' The outstanding feature primary villain. Professor Goldman is cor­ of La Follette's domestic program, both as rect in writing that La Follette was impatient governor and as Senator, was opposition to with what he considered evil. La Follette was corporate power and privilege. He was one not a frivolous or insincere man. Obviously, of the outstanding "antitrust" men of his he opposed compromise with evils as he saw day. In McCarthy there was not a trace of them. But if Goldman, by his phrase "slam- this position. McCarthy's main position, of bang impatience to root out 'evil' without too course, was intense hostility to Communists much regard for who or what might be within the United States and to others he trampled in the process" meant that La Follette accused of protecting or shielding Commu­ had no respect for civil liberty and due pro­ nists. La Follette was likewise an anti- cess of law, then again he is wrong. Evidence Communist. He repudiated Communist sup­ that La Follette was contemptuous of the port for his independent presidential can­ rights of individuals does not exist. As for didacy in 1924 and thereafter received Goldman's having "sensed" a La Follette- vituperative abuse from the Communist press. McCarthy connection "in the thrust of partic­ He did not, however, try to make political ular phrases and in the general tone" of capital of his anti-Communism, and in this La Follette's Autobiography, all one can say is that this impressionistic methodological tech­ nique is less than satisfactory, especially when " For La Follette criticism of "dollar diplomacy" conventional historical methods may fruitfully see Ellen Torelle, comp., with the assistance of be applied. Albert O. Barton and Fred L. Holmes, The Political Philosophy of Robert M. La Follette (Robert M. La Follette Co., Madison, 1920), 402-403, 414-415. HAT method should be used to test the ' For the best account of McCarthy's early political hypothesis that McCarthy was an heir career see John Steinke, "The Rise of McCarthyism," W unpublished master's thesis in the Department of of La Follette? The method must be historical History, University of Wisconsin Library, dated 1960. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961 respect he was the reverse of McCarthy. For from all areas of the nation outside the big most of La Follette's career, of course. Com­ Eastern cities, so common among political munists did not exist; they did not come into figures of all complexion, that this common being until after the Bolshevik revolution in tactic of the two men indicates very little. On November, 1917. But La Follette at no time balance, the contrasts between the two Sena­ red-baited the Milwaukee Socialists, who op­ tors' styles outweigh their similarities. posed him and his party in every election until after World War I and who were a significant T ET us now consider the nature of La political force within the state. -•—'Follette's and McCarthy's political support. In style and method McCarthy and La This is a complicated subject but an impor­ Follette were dissimilar in most respects. tant one. Despite the dissimilarity between La Follette's speeches were long, heavily docu­ La Follette and McCarthy on their political mented, and frequently technical to the point positions and their styles, if the two drew of being dull to many of his listeners. Such upon the same political base there would in­ was certainly not the case with McCarthy, deed be a connection between the two. whose documentation seldom went beyond Only a few political leaders bridged the references he said he had "here in my hand" gap of a generation between La Follette and but which he did not read or otherwise pro­ McCarthy. Of those who did live long enough duce. Nor was there similarity in the two to be politically active in both eras not one men's language. La Follette was restrained; was both a vigorous La FoUetteite and a McCarthy seldom was. vigorous McCarthyite. Two prominent Wis­ Two aspects of the men's style and method consin editors, William T. Evjue of the Madi­ had superficial similarities. Each of them son Capital Times and Clough Gates of the came to political prominence outside of and Superior Telegram were supporters of Senator against the opposition of the regular state La Follette and highly vocal critics of Senator party organization. But the opposition to McCarthy. By the McCarthy era, La Follette's La Follette was ideological while the opposi­ own magazine was under new editorial direc­ tion to McCarthy was personal. Furthermore, tion and a new name, but Morris Rubin's Tfie the regular party organization in time came Progressive was one of the most consistent and to accept McCarthy—even if not enthusiastic­ most critical anti-McCarthy voices in the ally in the case of some state Republicans— nation. but La Follette faced opposition from his Quite clearly, McCarthy and La Follette early Republican opponents throughout his drew political and financial support from career. La Follette had to defeat his early quite different economic or functional groups. opponents; McCarthy did not. The other Indeed, La Follette's most important oppo­ aspect: both La Follette and McCarthy en­ nents, powerful businessmen, were, for the gaged in a considerable amount of activity most part, supporters of McCarthy. A staff that heartened the citizen who liked to have writer for Fortune iMagazine wrote in 1954, his Senator "go down there to Washington ". . . an aura of big business, or at least Big and tell them off." Apparently both men were Money, has enveloped" Senator McCarthy. well aware of the political potency of provin­ The Fortune writer revealed that a poll of 253 cial pride. Yet when La Follette and McCarthy top business executives in the nation indicated told them off, they were not the same people considerable McCarthy strength.'' One astute or interests. La Follette's national opponents were powerful corporations and their spokes­ " Charles J. V. Murphy, "McCarthy and the Busi­ men in politics; McCarthy ignored or favored nessman," in Fortune, 49:158 (April, 1954), as such interests and lashed out at Communists cjuoted in Karl Ernest Meyer, "The Politics of Loyalty, From La Follette to McCarthy in Wisconsin: and people he considered "anti-anti-Commu- 1918-1952," unpublished doctoral dissertation in nist." Further, the stance both La Follette Department of Politics, Princeton University, dated and McCarthy took as the state hero challeng­ 1956 (University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Doctoral Dissertation Series, Publication No.: 20,139), 229- ing the rest of the country has been so com­ 230. This is a sound dissertation, and the present mon among representatives in the Congress writer gratefully acknowledges the help it provided him. SHANNON : MCCARTHY AND LA FOLLETTE

student of La Follette and McCarthy con­ The most striking difference one sees in cluded, "The very forces that branded the comparing these two elections is that La elder La Follette as a seditious demagogue Follette was vastly more popular in the state were helping to promote McCarthy; the ave­ than McCarthy. Only four years after the nues to power were open to McCarthy as they end of the war, during which La Follette was never were to 'Fighting Bob' La Follette."" the target of extremely virulent abuse because The views of long-lived and articulate poli­ of his opposition to the war. La Follette won ticians and editors and the support of func­ an overwhelming vote of confidence. He tional groups in the population, important as defeated William Ganfield, his conservative they are, do not, however, get at a basic ques­ Republican opponent, 362,445 votes to tion: Where did McCai'thy and La Follette 139,327. La Follette received 72.2 per cent of poll their votes? What counties were their the votes cast in the Republican primary, and areas of strength and weakness? Did they over 96 per cent of the citizens who went to the have a similar or different pattern of electoral polls in that election marked the Republican support and opposition? ballot. La Follette carried seventy of Wiscon­ The two elections best for comparison are sin's seventy-one counties, losing only Wal­ La Follette's last race for state-wide office, worth.'" McCarthy never, at any time, enjoyed which was his bid for re-election to the such strong support. In 1946, he squeaked United States Senate in 1922, and McCarthy's through the primary with a 5,396 vote margin. race for re-election to the same office in In 1952, McCarthy received 54.3 per cent of 1952. This La Follette race is best because it the total major-party vote in the general elec­ reduces the time gap between the two men to tion, defeating Thomas E. Fairchild, his Demo­ a minimum. La Follette's 1924 presidential cratic opponent, with a plurality of 139,042. campaign has been rejected because he may He lost eight counties. He ran 116,000 or 16 well have lost some voters who in general per cent behind the top man on the Republi­ supported him but did not vote for him in can ticket, Secretary of State Fred R. Zim­ 1924 on the grounds that he could not pos­ merman, and 109,300 or 11 per cent behind sibly win the Presidency. McCarthy's first President Eisenhower." It may be that two campaigns, his unsuccessful primary for Eisenhower pulled McCarthy through in 1952. the United States Senate in 1944 and his It is interesting to speculate what might have successful election to that office in 1946, are happened had the President not omitted his rejected for comparison because, in a manner paragraph supporting General George C. of speaking, McCarthy was then not yet a Marshall in his speech at Milwaukee and McCarthyite. McCarthy in 1944 and 1946 thereby avoided rebuffing McCarthy. was a relatively unknown quantity; in 1952 Comparing the county votes for La Follette Wisconsin voters knew quite clearly what they and McCarthy shows that three counties' polls were voting for or against. A further reason tend to support the hypothesis of a La Follette- for rejecting the McCarthy election of 1946 McCarthy connection. Shawano County was is that his primary opponent was one of La Follette's seventh strongest county in 1922 La Follette's sons, a fact which might skew or confuse the results if there were indeed a La Follette-McCarthy connection. The fol­ lowing elections statistics are for the 1922 '" These and subsequent figures on the 1922 elec­ Republican primary and the 1952 general tion are from Wisconsin Blue Book, 1923 (State election, for it was in those elections that the Printing Board, Madison, 1923), 500. real tests came, to the extent that La Follette " These and subsequent 1952 election statistics are from Richard M. Scammon, comp. and ed., had a real test in 1922. Further, Wisconsin America Votes: A Handbook of Contemporary Amer­ in 1922 was almost a one-party state, and the ican Election Statistics (Macmillan, for Governmental Affairs Institute, New York, 1956), 400-407. Scam- general election signified little. mon's figures are identical with those reported in iVisconsin Blue Book, 1954 (State of Wisconsin, Madison, 1954), 757. See also Louis H. Bean, Influences in the 1954 Mid-Term Elections: War, Jobs, Parity, McCarthy (Public Affairs Institute, 'Meyer, op. cit., 230. Washington, 1954), 8-18. La Follette's weakest: Waushara was McCarthy's third strongest and La Follette's twelfth weakest; Green Lake was McCarthy's fourth strongest and La Follette's fifth weakest; 'Marquette was McCarthy's sixth strongest and La Follette's eighth weakest; Grant was McCarthy's eighth strongest and La Follette's thirteenth weakest; Richland was McCarthy's eleventh best and La Follette's next to worst; and Walworth was McCarthy's twelfth best and La Follette's very worst. Thus, with the exception of Shawano, Ke­ Society's Iconographic Collection waunee, and Calumet counties—and Kewaunee La Follette campaigning at Cumberland, and Calumet were war-time enlistees in the Barron County, 1897. La Follette camp, having until then strongly opposed him—the general pattern of the vote and McCarthy's fifth strongest in 1952; Ke­ in the La Follette 1922 re-election and the waunee was La Follette's second strongest McCarthy 1952 re-election was that and McCarthy's seventh; and Calumet was McCarthy's areas of strength were among the La Follette's very strongest and McCarthy's most anti-La Follette counties. ninth. All were rural counties and near McCarthy's home. The largest town in the ' I ''HE historical evidence indicates that La three counties, Shawano, had a 1950 popula­ -•- Follette and McCarthy did not take simi­ tion of 5,894. Going back to earlier La Follette lar political positions and that they had differ­ contests in these counties reveals an interesting ent political styles. Their political support matter: in La Follette's gubernatorial election came from different individual political in 1902 Kewaunee was La Follette's fourth leaders, different interest groups, and differ­ weakest county and Calumet was his fifth ent parts of the state. Indeed, to a consider­ weakest. The ethnic composition of Kewaunee able extent. La Follette's supporters were and Calumet and La Follette's opposition to McCarthy's enemies and vice versa. The the war are significant. Both counties were hypothesis of a connection between La Follette heavily German and Austrian. Apparently and McCarthy, that the latter Senator was the war experience swung them into the La the heir of the former, does not stand up Follette camp, perhaps not so much because under scrutiny. of any German-American or Austrian- To look for the origins of McCarthyism American sympathy for the Central Powers among those who called themselves Progres­ as for the persecution they shared with the sives has the appeal of a paradox, but at least Senator.^" in the case of La Follette it is not a fruitful The bulk of the 1922 and 1952 voting evi­ course of investigation. If other researchers dence, however, is diametrically opposed to insist upon similar investigations, perhaps the La Follette-McCarthy connection hypo­ they would be wise to pursue quite a different thesis. Iron County, which borders Michigan's set of Progressives, the nationalist Progres­ upper peninsula, was La Follette's fourth sives such as Theodore Roosevelt and his strongest and McCarthy's weakest but one. followers. Roosevelt and La Follette repre­ Six of McCarthy's strongest counties were sented quite different reform traditions. To use Professor William B. Hesseltine's useful categories, Roosevelt was a Trustee and La Follette was a Yeoman.^^ '^ Meyer, op. cit., 19. Meyer emphasizes ethnic voting behavior, concluding that La Follette's strength before the war was among Scandinavian- Americans, to which was added German- and Aus­ trian-Americans after the war. He probably is right, ^^ William Best Hesseltine, "Four American Tradi­ but to be sure one wishes for ethnic and voting tions," in The Journal of Southern History, 27:3-32 statistics for election districts smaller than a county. (February, 1961). SHANNON : MCCARTHY AND LA FOLLETTE

Some quotations from Theodore Roosevelt date for a seat in the House of Representatives are interesting in considering the origins of had, so Roosevelt had heard, advocated a McCarthyism. In July, 1918, Roosevelt con­ national referendum before a declaration of gratulated a Philadelphia correspondent for war. "He should be thrown out of Congress his work in saving the United States frorti promptly even if elected and no honest man "bolshevism, [Non-Partisan League leader can afford to vote for him and thereafter A. C] Townley, [Samuel] Gompers, and claim to be himself a good and loyal Ameri­ other anarchists with whom Wilson was in can." In his so-called "last message to the league.'"* Six weeks before the American American people," written three days before declaration of war he wrote his old friend his death, he declared, "We have room for Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, "As for La but one flag, the American flag, and this ex­ Follette, he has shown himself to be an un­ cludes the red flag which symbolizes all wars hung traitor, and if the war should come, he against liberty and civilization just as much ought to be hung." In the early spring of as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to 1918 he wrote, " [Wilson] is encouraging the which we are hostile.'"" The sense of these Bolsheviki wholly without regard to their words, not just their thrust and general tone, betrayal of us; he has threatened to stand in suggests that the hypothesis of a Theodore their interest against Japan as much as Roosevelt-McCarthy connection might be against Germany. ..." A Democratic candi­ worth investigation.

" Quoted in George E. Mowry, Theodore Roosevelt '^ Elting E. Morison, ed., with the assistance of and the Progressive Movement (Hill and Wang, New John M. Blum and Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., The York, 1960), 372. This is a reprint edition, originally Letters of Theodore Roosevelt (Harvard University published by the University of Wisconsin Press in Press, Cambridge, 1954), VIH: 1157, 1304, 1387, 1946. 1422.

John Newhouse McCarthy campaigning at Platteville in the early 1950's.

9 ILLUSTRATING

THE CIVIL WAR

BY WILLIAM FLETCHER THOMP.SON, JR.

T^HE concept of "image" has perhaps been unusual significance to the work of the war­ -*- overexploited recently by public relations time artists. experts associated with candidates and gov­ One of the new and unique factors in the ernments, corporations and labor unions, image-making of the Civil War was the op­ universities and colleges, but it nevertheless portunity for the first time to illustrate war­ remains a legitimate and useful device for fare through the medium of popular jour­ an understanding of the impact of ideas on nalism. Earlier wars had, of course, been public opinion. Historians of the Civil War reported in the daily and weekly newspapers, are especially interested in the contemporary and occasionally an enterprising publisher images established by political and military had issued engravings or colored lithograph leaders, business spokesmen, and publicists prints portraying a particular battle or hero. representing a variety of opinions current to But these war pictures had never appeared the times, particularly as these images pro­ in sufficient numbers at the time to make vide some insight into the reaction of the a strong impression on public opinion, and public to the war. But while historians have indeed most of them were drawn months and fully evaluated the part these leaders played, often years after the events they portrayed.^ heretofore little attention has been given to As such they usually failed to picture combat the role of artists and picture publishers in as it really was, and nobody recognized this shaping public opinion. A study of the more quickly than the soldiers who joined the pictorial images of the Civil War is particu­ Union and Confederate armies in the summer larly rewarding because unique opportunities months of 1861. Josh Billings, a private in arising in the decade 1855-1865 imparted the Tenth Massachusetts Artillery, remem-

NOTE: the illustration, a detail from a larger panel in History from Quebec to Korea, 1755-1953 (Cleveland Harper's Weekly, June 14, 1862, is a self-portrait and New York, 1954) ; The American Heritage Book of Winslow Homer sketching scenes of camp life. of the Revolution, by the editors of American Heri­ tage Magazine (New York, 1958) ; "Battle Art of ' For examples of battle art prior to the Civil War, Currier and Ives," in The Old Print Shop Portfolio, see Roy Meredith, The American Wars, A Pictorial 7:194-216 (May, 1948).

10 THOMPSON : ILLUSTRATING THE CIVIL WAR bered later how strange the war seemed to the wood-block was then attached to the large him and his companions. "We had nothing rotary printing presses just coming into use. in our experience to compare it with," he Photoengraving was still far in the future, wrote many years after the war. "True, some and the mass duplication of photographs was of us had dim remembrances of a Mexican exactly the same as that for artists' sketches. War in our early childhood . . . from the At best the process required the labor of colored prints we had seen displayed . . . several artists and many skilled wood en­ [but] we could only run back in memory gravers, and even under the best of circum­ to the stories and traditions of the wars of stances, published pictures appeared only two the Revolution and 1812 . . . for anything or three weeks after the events they portrayed. like a vivid picture of what was to occur, Even so, this was such an improvement over and this, of course, was utterly inadequate previous methods that by 1860 there were to do the subject justice." And Major James three illustrated newspapers—Harper's Weelc- Connolly of Illinois recalled that as a boy ly, Fran/c Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, and he had wished he could go to war "like the the New Yorle Illustrated News—ready to men in the pictures, wearing a nice blue coat illustrate the war.^ and red pants, flourishing a great yellow Ready, that is, technologically, but scarcely sword over my head, and dashing into the ready with sufficient numbers of artists to thickest of the fight on a furious, coal black send to the field with the armies or en­ horse." Needless to say, both men saw their gravers to process their sketches. Prior to childhood images shattered by the war.'' the war, the publishers of the illustrated week­ Yet in contrast to Billings and Connolly, lies had relied upon two or three staff artists any child or adult who lived through the in New York City and a small group of part- Civil War need not have been as disillusioned. time artists and photographers elsewhere to By 1861 illustrated journalism had come into provide them with pictures. But such re­ its own in America. The growth of the popu­ sources were clearly inadequate to sketch lation in the decades immediately preceding a war which quickly spread along a thousand- the war established a market for news illustra­ mile front from Fortress Monroe in Virginia tions, and artists and engravers, many of to Springfield in central Missouri. The re­ them trained in England, solved most of the sults were painfully apparent in the haphazard technological problems. Admittedly by modern quality of the illustrations in those early standards the production of pictures for news­ months of 1861. During the crisis at Fort papers was extremely slow and crude. Sketch Sumter in April, Fletcher Harper, the pub­ artists throughout the country sent their pic­ lisher of Harper's Weeftly, relied entirely tures to New York where staff artists copied upon sketches provided by several officers them onto large blocks of boxwood, and of Major Robert Anderson's command within engravers meticulously cut away the uninked the fort, and his published illustrations of sections to make what was called a wood­ the bombardment on April 12 were drawn block or a woodcut. A copper duplicate of by staff artists in New York City, some two hundred miles from the scene of action.*

''John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee. . . . (Bos­ 1855, 6, August 2, 1856, 124-125, December 15, 1860, ton, 1888), 25; James A. Connolly, Three Years in 53, December 14, 1905, 566, 568. On early photogra­ the Army of the Cumberland, edited by Paul M. phy, consult Robert Taft, Photography and the Angle (Bloomington, Indiana, 1959), 253. American Scene, A Social History, 18.39-1889 (New ' This summary is based upon a more extensive York, 1942). discussion of the same subject in W. Fletcher ' See the issues of Harper's Weekly for the weeks Thompson, Jr., The Image of War: The Pictorial of January 12, 1861, through May 4, 1861. The two Reporting of the American Civil War (New York, best published collections of Civil War pictorial art 1960), 18-23. Also see Frank Luther Mott, A History are The American Heritage Picture History of The of American Magazines, 1850-1865 (Cambridge, Civil War, by the editors of American Heritage Massachusetts, 1938), 43-45, 192-193, 452-453, 458- Magazine (New York, 1960) and David Donald, 459, 469-473, 475-476; Clement K. Shorter, "Illus­ Divided We Fought, A Pictorial History of the War, trated Journalism: Its Past and its Future," in The 1861-1865, edited by Hirst D. MilhoUen, Milton Contemporary Review, 75:482-486 (April, 1899); Kaplan, and Hulen Stuart (New York, 1952). Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, December 15,

11 AUTUMN, 1961 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY He had never in his life seen an Indian nor sat astride a horse. Certainly he had not the slightest idea of the rigors of campaigning in the field.'' What was true for Simplot was also true for the other thirty-some men who at one time or another during the war served as Special Artists. As a group they were bold but inexperienced. Life in the field demanded youth and endurance; most of the artists were in their early twenties; experience showed that those few over thirty were most susceptible to exhaustion and disease. All had some art training, either in commercial engraving or in the more traditional art academies. Several had sketched news events TN the face of this shortage, the mobiliza- for the illustrated weeklies prior to the war, -l tion of artists began almost immediately. and these veterans of the craft—Alfred and Both Harper and Frank Leslie offered free William Waud, Henri Lovie, and Theodore subscriptions to all officers with the army Davis—quickly established their superiority who would submit a small sketch as an ex­ over neophytes like Simplot who had to learn ample of their artistic ability. All three pub­ the trade while under fire. Only one of them— lishers offered to pay liberally for any sketches Thomas Nast—had ever sketched in combat, they used, no matter how roughly drawn. By but even Nast's experience with Garibaldi such means both Harper and Leslie claimed during the Italian war for unification in 1860 to have nearly fifty corresponding artists hardly prepared him for the American Civil with the Federal armies by the eve of the War." . battle of Bull Run. But officers and soldiers The artists were also similar m that all in the ranks were at best uncertain sources shared the same romantic illusions about the of pictures, and the publishers continued to nature of warfare. Like Major Connolly and enlist young civilian artists to accompany Private Billings, the artists joined the armies the armies and submit sketches on a commis­ with visions of brilliantly uniformed troopers sion basis. They raided the National Academy and dashing cavalry charges. Every general of Design, New York's leading art school, was potentially a new Napoleon; every soldier and enlisted young artists eager to supple­ in the ranks another Minuteman dedicated ment their meagre incomes. Lack of experi­ to the defense of his country. No group of ence was no deterrent. When Alexander journalists better personified this light-hearted Simplot of Dubuque sent Fletcher Harper casualness of the early war months than the a sketch showing the departure of his home "Bohemian Brigade" of the army m the town's first regiment, he received by return West. It included a half-dozen reporters from mail a commission as Harper's Special Artist the leading New York, Chicago, and Cincin­ for the Trans-Mississippi West. Simplot was nati newspapers, together with two artists, the product of a sheltered life; the son of Alex Simplot and Henri Lovie. The Bohemi­ one of Dubuque's prominent and well-to-do ans sent dispatches and pictures to their families, he had spent four years in college publishers, but generally they frolicked and and then tried his hand at school teaching. enjoyed themselves, sipping Madeira and playing poker with the generals, horseracmg

"Alexander Simplot, Forgotten Bohemian," in The wl:coZjnMaga!ineof History, 41:256-261. (Summer ^^ Harper's Weekly, March 16, 1861 to July 13, 1861 1958), and Simplot's manuscript memoirs in. the passim: New York Illustrated News August 26 collections of the Wisconsin State Historical Society. 1861 258 May 10, 1862, 11; Leslie's, April 27, 1861 "Thompson, Image of War, 74-76. ]oU\y 6:mi, passim. On Simplot, see John Hunter,

12 THOMPSON : ILLUSTRATING THE CIVIL WAR

up and down the dry Missouri gullies, pillow- ing him lying gently in the arms of his de­ fighting in their hotel rooms, and sometimes voted aides, holding a plumed hat in one settling down for a pseudo-sophisticated dis­ hand, a bared sword in the other, his eyes cussion of opera, philosophy, and women.' turned upward towards Heaven, and speaking The combat illustrations appearing in the a few last inspired words to the officers who weekly illustrated newspapers in those early gathered about him." months of the war inevitably reflected these Of course, it is possible that General Lyon illusions. Artists with the Virginia armies did assume the classic pose of heroic battle­ delighted in showing bare-chested troopers field death in his last moments, but it is heroically planting the Stars and Stripes atop highly unlikely. The point is that in the early captured enemy earthworks—which often had months of the war, the artists were sketching been abandoned by the Confederates several not what they had actually seen but rather hours earlier. The death of high-ranking what they and their reading public at home officers became national tragedies. Early in wanted to see. According to the traditions of July, General Nathaniel Lyon foolishly at­ the past, combat was heroic; everyone re­ tacked a superior Confederate army in cen­ membered the Minutemen at Lexington and tral Missouri and was killed in action. Artists Concord bridge, the defense of Bunker Hill, on the scene and other artists in New York and Andy Jackson at the battle of New commemorated the hero's last moments, show­

' On the Bohemian Brigade, see Hunter, "Simplot, 'Leslie's, August 24, 1861, 225; New York Illus­ Forgotten Bohemian"; Simplot's manuscript memoirs' trated News, August 26, 1861, 260, May 10, 1862, 8-10; Franc Wilkie, Pen and Powder (Boston, 1888) ;' 14; and the lithographed print of Lyon's death by Louis M. Starr, Bohemian Brigade: Civil War News­ Currier and Ives in the Print Collection of the men in Action (New York, 1954). Library of Congress.

Haiper s Weekly, November 29, 1862 Winslow Homer, unlike the regular field artists, made his final drawings m New York directly on boxwood, thus preserving his individual style as shown in this Thanksgiving scene.

13 WISCONSIN MAG.4ZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

Orleans. This was the nature of warfare as ordinate far-flung units of the army, the the average American knew it from seeing battles soldiers fought with Virginia mud, paintings and engravings, and it would have and the grueling and dirty hours in the been expecting too much of human nature trenches. When Lee checked McClellan in to anticipate a quick abandonment of such front of Richmond in a series of harsh and conforting images. Even the defeat and rout costly battles, there was little of the tradi­ of the Federal army at Bull Run in July, 1861, tional heroics in the artists' sketches. Combat did not dispell this complacency. All re­ was deadly, and it left its mark everywhere— mained convinced that one good smashing in the hollow, gutted houses and barns caught victory and the capture of Richmond would between the armies, in the field hospitals, on bring the war to a quick and glorious end. the anguished faces of wounded men, and along the rows of dead soldiers stiffly stretched in a ditch prior to a mass burial. The impact of these pictures at home was un­ mistakable. A few readers even complained that their children were frightened by them— as if war were a pastime for children." Artists in the West learned many of the same lessons with a victorious army. The system of western rivers was crucial in deter­ mining Federal strategy in this area, and Alex Simplot familiarized readers of Harper's Weefdy with the appearance of the steam­ boats, gunboats, and mortar boats that carried the war up and down the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Mississippi. Henri Lovie, the veteran of Frank Leslie's large corps of western artists, was among the first to include ^ I ''HE transition to more realistic images of specific examples of the brutalities of war. -*- warfare began during the first winter of His illustrations of the bombardment of Fort the war and with the spring campaigns of Henry in February, 1862, showed in graphic 1862. During the winter, the artists with detail the dismembered bodies of Confederate McClellan's Army of the Potomac began to gunners struck by shot from the Federal gun­ appreciate the necessity of staff work and boats. There was even pathos in his portraits intra-army organization, the vital dependence of the ragged exhausted Confederate prisoners of combat troops on the work of the engineers, taken at Fort Donelson two weeks later. But the ordnance, and quartermaster departments, at Shiloh in early April his indignation found and they began to agree with McClellan that expression in bitter sketches of hundreds of discipline and training were essential pre­ Federal deserters and skulkers who huddled requisites to victory in the field. When sullenly by the river edge while their com­ McClellan launched his spring offensive panions fought desperately up on the bluffs against Richmond, the artists' pictures re­ only a few yards away. For Lovie at least, flected their new appreciation of the com­ the carefree days of the Bohemian Brigade plexity and difficulties of modern warfare. were another casualty of the war.'" Dozens of illustrations appeared in the illus­ This transition from the traditional, heroic trated weeklies that spring showing the intri­ images of war to more realistic interpretations cate communications system necessary to co­ was so subtle and gradual that many of the

"Harper's Weekly, May 17, 1862, 306; Thompson, sketches in the issues of March 8 and 15, 1862, his Image of War, 48-58. Shiloh sketches in the issues of May 3 and 17, 1862. " Lovie's Fort Henry illustrations appeared in Also see Thompson, Image of War, 65-73. Leslies, March 1, 1862, 232-233, his Fort Donelson

14 THOMPSON : ILLUSTRATING THE CIVIL WAR

artists were at first unaware of the change. place to another and a host of other special For most of them, the war was a day-by-day favors, for the use of the army mails to get experience leaving little time to contemplate his sketches back to New York, and occasion­ the new themes and motifs that appeared in ally when circumstances warranted even for their pictures. small military escorts for his personal pro­ From the artists' viewpoint, their most im­ tection. Under these conditions it was not mediate challenge was to solve problems for unusual that most of the artists cuhivated which there was no precedent or prior ex­ friendships in the right places and flattered perience. These artists were the first of their the colonels and generals with favorable por­ breed. Ultimately their success depended more traits and illustrations of their units under on their ability to get along with the army fire. For their part, most of the officers were and to work under hazardous conditions in glad to co-operate, for in the American the field than on their skill with a pencil and democracy, where military reputation is the brush. As ex-officio camp followers, they highest recommendation for political prefer­ were subject to military law, but in practice ence, pictorial publicity helped create reputa­ this meant adjusting to the personality of the tions. The most successful of the artists were commanding officers who interpreted the law highly skillful in making these contacts. Alfred strictly or laxly as they chose. Every artist Waud, the mainstay of Harper's staff of was dependent upon these officers for food artists in the East, was on intimate terms of and shelter for himself and forage for his friendship with most of the generals in the horse, for passes to move freely from one Army of the Potomac; and Theodore Davis,

Leslie ' Illustrated Weekly, October IS, 1862 An example of extreme realism, in which F. H. Schell registered his disgust for Maryland and Pennsylvania civilians makh ig a gruesome tour of the Antietam battlefield.

15 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

Harper's ace artist in the West, often shared were superbly situated in this respect; Shiloh, meals and sleeping space with Grant and Chancellorsville, and the battles on the Penin­ Sherman." sula were artistic nightmares because so How to sketch under fire was the most limited a sector of the battlefield was visible recurrent of the artists' problems. Every from any one position. skirmish and battle differed in the size of In addition to visibility, the artists needed the armies engaged, the lay of the terrain, time, and quickly enough they developed a and the unpredictable movement of troops. shorthand system of sketching. An experi­ Edwin Forbes, who joined Leslie's artists with enced field artist like Henri Levi or Alf the Army of the Potomac in 1862, recalled his Waud could make a working sketch in one first experience under fire. "I fully expected or two minutes. A sweeping line or two indi­ when I started for the front," he later wrote, cated the main ridges and elevations; quick "to accompany troops into the battle and pencil smudges showed the location of tree seat myself complacently on a convenient clusters, and entire regiments in formation hillside and sketch exciting incidents at my appeared as a row of short lines, something leisure." But when he galloped forward he like pickets on a fence. Given an extra mo­ discovered he could not get within a half ment or two, they might sketch in more mile of the front without exposing himself detail a particular posture, such as that of to enemy gunfire, and he suddenly realized a wounded soldier begging for help or the that "to be a spectator was nearly as dan­ panic of an injured horse floundering in its gerous as being a participant." He admitted harness. But usually to save time they wrote quite frankly that his desire to witness a brief notes to themselves in the margins, and battle at close range "underwent great change. then when the battle was over they added the I concluded to wait for a more convenient necessary background and elaborated the opportunity." Forbes immediately devised figures of the men." a safer method of battlefield sketching. He Sometimes the results as published in the rode well back of the lines to an elevated illustrated newspapers were not all the artists ridge, and seated on his horse he sketched the would have wished for. More often than not battle through his binoculars. This technique this was the fault of the staff artists and en­ protected him from the danger and irritation gravers in New York who copied the sketches of enemy gunfire; it gave him a broad per­ onto boxwood and then cut out the wood­ spective of the entire action, and a touch of blocks. These craftsmen, fresh from the battle his spurs would send him galloping to another of the pedestrians on Broadway, felt no hesita­ position for a different view; and his binocu­ tion in changing essential details, often times lars brought him close to the scene of the with grotesque results. They were known to fighting. Like most artists, he usually toured show cavalrymen mounting up on the wrong the field after the battle, making sketches of side of the horse, and even more interesting particular scenes, and talked with the troops to hard-bitten troopers were illustrations show­ to augment his fund of details." ing the cavalry in a hard run, each man firing Needless to say, every major battle did not his carbine with one hand, waving a saber lend itself to this mode of operations. in the other, the momentarily forgotten reins Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg lying loosely in his lap."

" James G. Randall, "The Newspaper Problem in 1890), 1:1-2, 2:257-258. its Bearing upon Military Secrecy during the Civil '" The main collections of original field sketches War," in The American Historical Review, 23:317- are the Waud and Forbes collections in the Library 318 (1917-1918) ; Theodore R. Davis, "Grant Under of Congress, the Homer collection in the Cooper Fire," in The Cosmopolitan, 14:339 (January, 1893) ; Union Institute in New York City, the collection Henry Hitchcock, Marching with Sherman . . . , of sketches of many of Leslie's artists in the New edited by M. A. DeWolfe Howe, (New Haven, York Public Library, and the Simplot collection in Connecticut, 1927), 217-218. the Wisconsin State Historical Society. "Edwin Forbes, Thirty Years After: An Artist's " As examples, see Harper's Weekly, June 15, Story of the Great War, ... (2 vols.. New York, 1861, 377, November 29, 1862, 765.

16 THOMPSON : ILLUSTRATING THE CIVIL WAR

NE important factor in promoting more does them with the rapidity of a ready writer." O realistic illustrations and images was the At one time or another, Grant, Sherman, and criticism artists received from the soldiers most of the corps commanders testified to themselves. Battle veterans were the sharpest the quality and value of the artists' work. of critics. They sneered at pictures showing Convalescing soldiers in the hospitals eager­ infantrymen marching into battle at the ly sought copies of the illustrated weeklies. regulation 110 steps a minute but nevertheless Every issue reaching the armies sold out keeping pace with their colonels galloping at within several minutes, and a few unscrupu­ a dead run on horseback. When Harper's lous news dealers made a thousand per cent engravers misinterpreted one of Alf Waud's profit from the sale of illustrated newspapers." sketches from the battle of Fair Oaks to show As the war dragged into its third and nearly 500 men marching into combat in fourth years, many soldiers expressed appre­ perfect shoulder-arms formation, each man ciation for illustrations showing the army in a mirror replica of the man on either side its noncombat postures. Oliver Norton, a and every man running with the same leg private in the Pennsylvania Volunteers, wrote forward, soldiers greeted the illustration with his sister that the latest issue of Harper's shouts of derision. Officers resented the Weekly is "one of the choicest numbers artists' giving credit where it was not due. I have ever seen. [The illustration called] Captain Henry Blake of the Massachusetts 'The Picket' is a gem of a woodcut . . . life­ Volunteers was incensed when one of the like and true. . . . Keep it to show me when artists made a hero of an officer he knew I come home." Jenkin Lloyd Jones, a Wis­ from personal experience to be an unmiti­ consin artilleryman, wished he were an artist gated coward, and General Alpheus Williams so he could sketch the "grand and sublime wrote his daughter: "I have seen in the sight" of the army bivouacking in the field, illustrated newspapers . . . drawings of furious with hundreds of campfires illuminating the onslaughts made by troops which never fired night. Edwin Forbes did such a sketch, call­ a gun."^"' ing it "Going into Bivouac at Night." Indeed, On the other hand, the veterans were just the best work of several of the artists, includ­ as quick to appreciate the work of the artists ing Forbes, were not their combat sketches when it coincided with their own experiences. but rather their portraits of the routine life Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., later Justice of of the ordinary army private." the United States Supreme Court, wrote his Winslow Homer, best remembered as a parents from the Cold Harbor campaign ask­ painter of seascapes, was frankly not inter­ ing them to save copies of the illustrated week­ ested in doing combat sketching. On the rare lies for him, and he particularly praised Alf occasions when Fletcher Harper persuaded Waud as "quite a truthful draughtsman." him to go to the front, he preferred to stay General Alpheus Williams, sometimes a critic, in the camps sketching whatever happened to became quite friendly with Theodore Davis attract his attention and interest. During during the March to the Sea. "His sketches McClellan's campaign against Richmond in are beautiful," he wrote his daughters, "much 1862, Homer was a familiar sight to soldiers better than copies seen in Harper's, and he behind the lines who enjoyed watching him

'"'' Stanton P. Allen, Down in Dixie, Life in a 332; Robert Ferguson, America during and after Cavalry Regiment in the War Days. . . . (Boston, the War (London, 1866), 73-74, 226-227; Alonzo 1893), 90-92; Harper's Weekly, August 16, 1862, H. Quint, The Potomac and the Rapidan. . . . (Bos­ 523-524; Henry N. Blake, Three Years in the Army ton, 1864), 95, 311. of the Potomac (Boston, 1865), 104-105; Milo M. "Oliver W. Norton, Army Letters, 1861-1865 Quaife, ed., From the Cannon's Mouth, the Civil (privately printed, Chicago, 1903), 137-138; compare War Letters of General Alpheus S. Williams (Detroit, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary (Wis­ 1959), 179. consin History Commission: Original Papers, No. ^"Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Touched with Fire: 8, February, 1914), 279-280, with plate #11 in Civil War Letters and diary of Oliver Wendell William Forrest Dawson, A Civil War Artist at the Holmes, Jr., 1861-1864 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Front, Edwin Forbes' Life Studies of the Great 1946), 149; Quaife, ed.. From the Cannon's Mouth, Army (New York, 1957).

17 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961 work, seated comfortably atop a large barrel, brations in camp, mail day, and pay day. a sketch pad across his lap, drawing rapidly Still others, like Alf Waud and his brother with pencil or charcoal. In a few minutes William, specialized in sketches of the army he could fill a sheet of paper with sketches on the march. The capricious Southern cli­ showing the posture of a soldier slamming mate, with its searing heat and sudden thun­ home his ramrod, or the cocky stance of derstorms, dominated illustrations showing a teen-age trooper with his cap pulled down the tortuous struggle of infantrymen and army over his eyes. Only when he returned to teamsters against rain, snow, mud, dust, and New York did he then work these notes into grime. In stark contrast to illustrations from large group portraits, which when published the early months of the war portraying per­ were the best illustrations available of the fectly uniformed and equipped soldiers march­ army in its moments of ease.'* ing in prescribed formations, sketches from Other artists followed Homer's example. the last two years showed ragged, begrimed Those who remained with the army during veterans, witness to months of exposure, yet the long months between campaigns and when arrogantly self-assured as they swung along the troops were in winter quarters sent their in the loose easy stride of the hardened publishers hundreds of sketches of the soldiers campaigner.™ in their noncombat hours. Forbes particu­ Campaigning in the field also took its toll larly enjoyed the days he spent on the picket among the artists. Only one sketcher was line, where toughened veterans squatted before killed in the war, but Theodore Davis and a bubbling pot of coffee, swapped stories, and several others were severely wounded. Arthur frequently fraternized with Confederate Lumley, F. C. Bonwill, and Joseph Becker pickets located only a few dozen yards away. all lost their portfolios of sketches while under Other artists showed the ingenuity of soldiers fire, a particular tragedy to men working on building their winter shelters, the riotous a commission basis. A few artists were cap­ nature of regimental athletics, holiday cele­ tured, but unlike the reporters who were usu-

^^ Most of Homer's wartime sketches are in the Cooper Union Institute in New York City. 'Thompson, Image of War, 127-164 passim.

Harper's Weeklv, August 16. 1862 Bayonet charge at Fair Oaks. New York engravers, misinterpreting and leaving unfinished Waud's rapid field sketch, produced this kind of military absurdity which aroused the troops' derision.

18 THOMPSON : ILLUSTRATING THE CIVIL WAR

^2S,^^- •'f""'^ '•*-^' MM40

y . / '.•-/. ••' .'* :;L. .,-.-^ ;••-»- .••.r,.'/ '''i r f-.^^^: •

Action at Ft. Donelson. A page from Alexander Simplot's sketchbook, owned by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

ally sent to Southern prison camps, the Con­ the dim light of an attenuated tallow 'dip,' federates ordinarily released captured artists are among the least of my . . . sorrows." He immediately, and on one occasion a group begged a furlough, explaining: "I am de­ of Confederate cavalry even posed for Alf ranged about the stomach, ragged, unkempt, Waud before returning him to the Union and unshorn, and need the co-joined skill lines. Sickness and exhaustion worked the and services of the apothecary, the tailor and greatest harm. Edwin Forbes and Arthur the barber, and above all the attentions of Lumley suffered from exposure after particu­ home. . . ." Although Lovie retired from larly hard campaigns. Early in 1863 Alex sketching during the Vicksburg campaign in Simplot gave up sketching altogether because 1863, two hard years in the field contributed he could not throw off a bad case of chronic to his early death.'"' diarrhea. Both the Waud brothers, men in their thirties, suffered repeatedly from sun­ stroke, fevers, and exhaustion. Alf Waud "PVESPITE these casualties, the sketch artists described one illness as "an attack of the ^-^ had succeeded in establishing a new im­ billions remittant fever brought on by ex­ age of war. When the last year of campaign­ posure to the damned climate in the cussed ing opened in May of 1864, very few readers swamps." In the case of William Waud, of the illustrated newspapers looked for the however, his noted propensity for the bottle heroics of an earlier era. As they examined may have accounted for his long and frequent the illustrations—and in those days readers furloughs from the front lines. After Shiloh, Henri Lovie wrote Leslie that "riding from 10 to 15 miles daily, through mud and under­ "^Ibid., 84-85; Alfred R. Waud to Paul D. (?), brush, and then working until midnight by July 5, 1862, in the Waud collection; Leslie's, May 17, 1862, 66, August 30, 1862, 358.

19 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

scrutinized every picture to the slightest diary: "The pictures in 'Harper's Weekly' detail—they found evidence of a new style and 'Frank Leslie's' tell more lies than Satan of heroism. They saw pictures of men who himself was ever the father of. I get in such fought not in the stereotyped postures of a rage when I look at them that sometimes the past but with cold and ruthless skill I take off my slipper and beat the senseless against an equally talented enemy. In the paper with it." But for every letter of criti­ illustrations they shared the grueling agony cism, a hundred others arrived praising the of the forced march and the isolation of the work of the artists and asking for more.''' picket line, but they also participated in the There is irony in the fact that thirty years relaxed pleasures of winter quarters, the after Appomattox when Americans went to humor and pranks of camp life. They thus war against the Spanish, they reverted to the came to appreciate something of the splendor conventional heroic images—and again in of the veteran army. 1917, and still again after Pearl Harbor in Admittedly not everyone approved of what 1941. In each instance artists underwent he saw. Some of the illustrations and most experiences similar to those of the Civil War of the editorial cartoons carried the message sketch artists and passed on their knowledge of Northern propaganda, and critics of the to the readers at home. In each war, artists war in both North and South were sometimes rediscovered the common foot-soldier: the infuriated. Two former subscribers from Civil War produced a Winslow Homer, the Ohio wrote Fletcher Harper: "You will much Second World War produced Bill Mauldin. oblige [us] ... if you will keep your dam History was not repeating itself. Rather, in Blagard Sheet at home, or send it to them every war since 1861, more realistic images that can Stumic it. We can no longer gow it have eventually prevailed because war itself any longer." And a girl in Georgia told her never changes.

-^Harper's Weekly, Nov. 12, 1864, 723; Eliza Francis Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 (New York, 1908), 371.

Courtesy of Bill Mauldin Alf Waud in Harper's Weekly, October 22, 1862, and Bill Mauldin in Up Front, 1945. VISIONS OF METROPOLIS: WILLIAM GILPIN AND THEORIES OF CITY GROWTH IN THE AMERICAN WEST

By CHARLES N. GLAAB However, in the writings of William Gilpin, one of the more intriguing of nineteenth-cen­ tury prophets, these pervasive ideas provided the basis for a reasonably systematic, deter­ ministic theory of city location and for more In this study, the Director of the general speculations about the future of in­ Society's Urban History Section explores terior America which had a significant in­ some early and often fanciful theories fluence in shaping nineteenth-century views of city growth and planning of the nature of the West. Recent scholarship has demonstrated Gil­ pin's importance in inspiring a generation of spokesmen for America's manifest destiny, his contribution to Senator Thomas Hart TN the early and mid-nineteenth century, pro- Benton's ideas of western empire, his prob­ -*- meters who sought justification for gran­ able influence on Walt Whitman, and the diose plans to create cities in new regions of part played by his "pastoral garden" view of the American West turned to nature and geo­ the Great Plains in breaking down the pre­ graphy.' Woven into their argument that vailing Great American Desert image. In natural forces determined success in urban addition, it has been pointed out that his experiments were various threads of nine­ insights into the future—particularly his an­ teenth-century thought: a geopolitical empha­ ticipation of the rise of the United States, sis on the importance of central land masses Russia, and China as world powers—were in in a society's development; the old geogra­ many ways more valid than those of much phical-historical idea that great cities are in­ better-known American prophets.* But chief­ evitably located along the major rivers of ly owing to the obscurity into which he fell the world; and the view that mankind moves after his death in 1894, Gilpin, for all the ever westward. Since this geographic ra­ attention he has received, has remained a tionale was primarily a product of tactics, shadowy figure. Always a verbose and at not of research or logic, local polemicists sel­ times a chaotic writer, given to mystical wan­ dom presented it with much sophistication. derings, Gilpin was unread in the twentieth

' The writer wishes to express his appreciation to Vintage Books, 1957), 38-46, 49-50, examines the the Wisconsin Urban Program of the University of relationship between Gilpin, Benton, and Whitman. Wisconsin, which supported a portion of the research Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian 'involved in this study. (Boston, 1954), 1-8, 351-367, assesses Gilpin's role ^ Bernard De Voto, "Geopolitics with the Dew on in shaping national attitudes toward the Great Plains. It," in Harpers' Magazine CLXXXVIII: 313-323 Kenneth W. Porter, "William Gilpin: Sinophile and (March, 1944), revived interest in Gilpin's work by Eccentric," in The (Colorado Magazine XXXVII: 245- portraying him as a prophet of manifest destiny and 267 (October, 1960), discusses the reactions of a a pioneer of geopolitics. A similar theme is em­ German traveler, Julius Froebel, to an 1852 visit phasized in Charles 'Vevier, "American Continen- with Gilpin in Independence, Missouri. James C. talism: An Idea of Expansion, 1845-1910," in Amer­ Malin, The Grassland of North America, Prolegomena ican Historical Review LXV: 325-326 (January, to Its History (Lawrence, Kansas, 1947), 177-192, 1960). Henry N. Smith, Virgin Land (New York, contains a perceptive essay on his influence.

21 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961 century and his theories forgotten. The com­ which lies on the Mississippi River and West piler of a sketch of his life for the Dictionary of it," he continued, "must one day surpass of American Biography, for example, dis­ aught now existing or which has existed . . . missed him as a "visionary" who used "quaint indeed, one who has not seen the valley of the maps and more quaint arguments" to prove Mississippi can hardly be said to have been his strange views." Lacking information about in America—he knows not what a Heart and many phases of his life, recent writers who Sinews she has."* have revived interest in his work have tended to portray him in similar fashion—as a my­ stical, eccentric prophet who speculated ori­ ginally and dispassionately on the West and its importance to the American and world future. But this kind of treatment of Gilpin ignores the relationship between his central themes and those contained in the promotional writ­ ing that western sectional and town spokesmen had been turning out for years. Moreover, Gilpin's practical concerns as a western pro­ moter unquestionably influenced the develop­ ment and character of his arguments. His activities in the Kansas City area, a neglected aspect of his career, particularly illustrate the vital relationship between practical promo­ tion and exuberant prophecy. Gilpin was perhaps the most significant representative State Historical Society of Colorado of a nineteenth-century group of promoter- William Gilpin, ca. 1861. intellectuals whose fervid assertions of the inevitability of greatness for the cities of the Gilpin had military ambitions, and these West fundamentally influenced the traditions may have contributed to the chauvinistic tone of the region. that pervades much of his writing. After a year spent at West Point, he had earlier T)ORN October 4, 1813, into a cultivated tried unsuccessfully to enlist in a revolutionary •*-' merchant family of Brandywine, Penn­ army being recruited in England to fight sylvania, William Gilpin first came west to against the Don Carlos regime in Spain. In Missouri as a young army recruiting officer Missouri he came up with the idea of organ­ during the Second Seminole War. The region izing an expedition under his command to captivated him. He wrote to his sister from seize Oregon. Disappointed by his failure to St. Louis that all that he had read about the gain support for this venture among family West was inaccurate and distorted. Words, friends in high positions in Washington, he he said, could not indicate the great natural resigned from the army and returned to St. wealth to be exploited. "The part of the Valley Louis where he assumed the editorship of the

" James F. Willard, "Gilpin, William," Dictionary assistants, this work is highly inaccurate. Gilpin of American Biography, VII (New York, 1931), 316. paid $1,000 for the sixty-two page study. See John * William Gilpin to Elizabeth Gilpin, October 4, W. Caughey, Hubert Howe Bancroft, Historian of the 1836, in the Gilpin Papers, Missouri Historical West (Berkeley, 1946), 322. The Kansas City (Mo.) Society, St. Louis. Several other letters in this Public Library contains a valuable file of clipping small collection, all dating from this period, em­ material concerning Gilpin. Particularly significant phasize the same theme. The only biography of is a long interview with Will C. Ferrill, a Colorado Gilpin available is Hubert H. Bancroft, History of friend of Gilpin, in the Kansas City Journal (ca. the Life of William Gilpin (San Francisco, 1889). 1892), cited hereafter as Ferrill interview. It is of­ One of a series of subscription biographies turned ten necessary to piece together parts of Gilpin's out in assembly-line fashion by Bancroft and his life from a variety of scattered sources.

22 GLAAB : WILLIAM GILPIN

Democratic Missouri Argus and allied him­ his interest in politics, and became a leading self with Benton's political machine.' After spokesman for Benton's plan for a trans­ holding a variety of minor political jobs, in continental railroad to run from St. Louis 1841 he moved to Independence, Missouri, to San Francisco. He took part in efforts then a small trading community on the west­ to organize the Kansas-Nebraska territory and ern edge of settlement. There he edited a prepared the text of its first provisional con­ newspaper, practiced law, and kept up his stitution. Abandoning his long-time Democra­ political ties. Befitting his subsequent role tic allegiance, he early supported the Repub­ as prophet, his Independence neighbors many lican Party in Missouri, and, as a reward years later remembered him as a strange re­ for his services, Lincoln appointed him terri­ clusive scholar who had roamed through the torial governor of Colorado in 1861. Through town in baggy clothes with a frayed rope quick military action, he helped to save Colo­ around his middle for a belt. But contem­ rado and New Mexico for the Union, but his porary records indicate nothing of eccentri­ issuance of unauthorized military scrip to city; Gilpin at the time was accepted as a obtain supplies led to his dismissal two years practical man of affairs who, because of his later. After the war, having realized a large cultivated background, played an important fortune from a profitable land speculation, part in the cultural life of the community. he settled in Denver where he invested in a Although Independence continued to be his number of local enterprises. Reflecting his nominal home until 1861, the town often acceptance in his later career of the credo served only as a base for frequent trips into of the Gilded Age businessman, his authorized the West. He accompanied John C. Fre­ subscription biography—written at least in mont's second expedition and participated in part from materials which he furnished—en­ the early efforts of Oregon settlers to organize thusiastically comments that having once the territory. As their informal delegate, he directed his talents towards accumulating was on the scene in Washington in 1846 as money he "found no great difficulty in making a noisy advocate of America's manifest des­ a million or two of dollars." His 1874 mar­ tiny. Through his family connections, he got riage to a St. Louis widow, whom he had a hearing for his views in the administration first met during his military service in Mis­ and in Congress, but his extreme stand alien­ souri, resulted in several years of stormy con­ ated even the most ardent expansionists." flict, separation, and finally reconciliation in With the outbreak of the Mexican War, 1891. After spending the evening of January Gilpin re-entered the army and served as a 19, 1894, in a quiet game of backgammon major with Stephen Kearny's Army of the with his daughter, he died in his sleep during West in the conquest of New Mexico. After the night.' spending several months during the win­ During his years in Independence Gilpin ter of 1847—1848 in command of an expedi­ had begun to write and lecture extensively tion subduing Indians along the Santa Fe on the American West. Though his reports trail, he returned to Independence, renewed and letters on the Oregon question in 1846

'^Missouri Argus (St. Louis), November 20, 1839. (Topeka, 1907), 151; William E. Connelley, "The See James N. Primm, Economic Policy in the Deve­ First Provisional Constitution of Kansas," Kansas lopment of a Western State, Missouri, 1820-1860 Historical Collections, VI (1897-1900), 105-106; (Cambridge, 1954), 43, 45-46, for a brief description Vincent G. Tegeder, "Lincoln and the Territorial of Gilpin's role in the Benton organization. Patronage: The Ascendancy of the Radicals in the ° Ferrill interview. Reminiscent material on Gil­ West," in Mississippi Valley Historical Review pin is contained in the Kansas City Star, May 26, XXXV: 81 (June, 1948) ; Herbert 0. Brayer, Wil­ 1901, which reprints interviews collected by Carrie liam Blackmore: The Spanish-Mexican Land Grants Westlake Whitney. See also William J. Dalton, The of New Mexico and Colorado, 1863-1878 (Denver, Life of Father Bernard Donnelly (Kansas City, 1921), 1949), 65-70, 103-113, and passim.; Bancroft, Gil­ 169. For Gilpin's views on Oregon, see Senate Docs.. pin, 51. Helen Cannon, "First Ladies of Colorado— 29 Cong., 1 Sess. (1845-1846), No. 306 (Serial 474) ^ Julia Pratte Gilpin (Governor William Gilpin, 1861- 39-40 and 29 Cong., 1 Sess. (1845-1846), No. 178 1862)," in The Colorado Magazine, XXXVIII: 267- (Serial 473), 3-9. 274 (October, 1961), contains an account of Gil­ ' William E. Connelley, Doniphan's Expedition pin's marriage.

23 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961 had attracted some attention, he began to win railroad whose main branch would be built real recognition for his ideas with a series along the Axis of Intensity. of widely reprinted essays written in the late Gilpin further asserted that North America fifties." These he published along with some was a vast bowl that focussed all forces to of his speeches in The Central Gold Region the center and led to a harmonious pattern (1860). In fVIission of the North American of social development. The continent was a People (1873), he presented a slightly ex­ "symetrical and sublime" geographic unit, the panded edition of the earlier work. In his Mississippi Valley its dominant center. In last book, The Cosmopolitan Railway, he at­ words that recalled his earlier letters to his tempted a more formally organized piece of family, he declared in Tlie Central Gold Re­ writing, but it, too, relied on his earlier gion that the "Great Basin of the Mississippi speeches and articles." Gilpin had formulated is the amphitheatre of the world—here is su­ his ideas of the West by 1846. Though he premely, indeed, the most magnificent dwell­ traveled widely in the region throughout the ing marked out by God for man's abode."" rest of his life, he seldom corrected the fre­ quently inaccurate information sustaining his TN his reflections on the expansion of in- theoretical conceptions. -*- terior America, Gilpin speculated on the lo­ In large part these works consisted of de­ cation of the metropolises that would spring tailed topographical description, but running up near the Axis of Intensity, as part of the through them was a consistent thread of geo­ inevitable rise to dominance of the center. graphical determinism formally derived from In attributing the location of great cities to the German geographer Alexander von Hum­ the workings of natural forces, Gilpin, despite boldt. Gilpin accepted the Humboldt thesis his phrasing of these predictions in the lofty that nature controlled the pattern of develop­ terms of Humboldt's geography, employed a ment of society. He also adopted Hum­ line of argument used by virtually all spokes­ boldt's concept of the Isothermal Zodiac, an men of the aspiring towns and cities west of undulating belt of land approximately thir­ the Allegheny Mountains. Often they simply ty-three degrees wide encircling the earth asserted that a community enjoyed such a across the Northern Hemisphere. Through superiority of natural geographic advantages this zone, according to the theory, passed the —climate, natural river harbors, or, most im­ Axis of Intensity, a line not straight but portantly, location at key points in relation running approximately along the fortieth to rivers or lakes—that its success was as­ parallel where the mean temperature was fif­ sured. The doctrine of natural advantages ty-two degrees. Within the region embraced could, however, provide the basis for involved by the Isothermal Zodiac and there alone, deterministic theories of city location. In Gilpin asserted, the great civilizations of the 1851 an obscure Cincinnatian named S. H. world had flourished. Upon the Axis of In­ Goodin seized on the theory of gravitation tensity had pressed the migratory movements to try to prove that his city was destined of the human masses. Here men had con­ to be a great metropolis. Describing a pro­ structed the world's primary cities, the "foci cess by which circles of varying sized urban from which have radiated intellectual activi­ settlements formed according to the funda­ ty and power."" His Cosmopolitan Railway mental law of centralization, he concluded presented an elaborate argument for a world that ultimately the competition of cities in

' The articles originally appeared in the National were frequently reprinted in local newspapers. Intelligencer (Washington), October 13, 15, 22, "William Gilpin, The Central Gold Region (Phila­ December 3, 1857. They were reprinted in part in delphia, 1860) ; Mission of the North American the New York Times and De Bow's Review. The People (Philadelphia, 1873) ; published also in a Agricultural Capabilities of the Great Plains (U. S. slightly different edition in 1874; all references Patent Office, Agriculture, 1858), 294-296, is a con­ cited here are to the 1873 edition; The Cosmopoli­ densation of Gilpin's article on the pastoral charac­ tan Railway (San Francisco, 1890). ter of the Great Plains. Guides to the Colorado ^" Gilpin, The Cosmopolitan Railway, 207-208. See gold mines published in various American cities also Gilpin, The Central Gold Region, 133. in 1859 relied very heavily on the articles, and they " Gilpin, The Central Gold Region, 118.

24 GLAAB : WILLIAM GILPIN

'I HI mm, M \r

I.SOTJIFUM VI. ZUMLK *-^ Timi.'urni! ini \i ms „, /_\ ,•/. \ s/jy

fi..\TFAr

Map reproduced from Gilpin's Mission of the North American People. Dark line is tlie Axis of Intensity, near which future metropolises were expected to arise. the third circle of cities would create a great ite. The city, the British traveler Alexander central city in mid-America, which would Mackay wrote, "occupies as it were the cen­ have all other cities as "satellites or out- tral point, from which the great natural high­ posts. ways of the Union diverge in different direc­ With more obvious justification than in tions. The different radii which spring from many communities, St. Louis writers worked it bring it into contact with a vast circum­ out the doctrine of natural advantages in ela­ ference. The Missouri connects it with the borate detail. Located near an unrivalled Rocky Mountains, the Ohio with the AUe- confluence of rivers at a key point on the ganies [sic], the Upper Mississippi with the great central waterway, the Mississippi—of Great Lakes, the lower with the ocean. It is great significance in most geographic specu­ destined soon to become the great internal lation about the future of the early West—St. entrepot of the country.'"" Louis struck many observers as nature's favor­ Natural advantages, of course, provided no guarantee of success in urban experi-

^ S. H. Goodin, "Cincinnati—Its Destiny," in vels in the United States in 1846-47, III (London, Charles Cist, S/cetches and Statistics of Cincinnati 1849), 53-54. For a similar statement, see James in 1851 (Cincinnati, 1851), 306-320. Hall, The West: Its Commerce and Navigation " Alexander Mackay, The Western World or Tra­ (Cincinnati, 1848), 247-248.

25 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

ments. Nearly forgotten hamlets, which once and concluded quite naturally, considering his in geographic terms might legitimately have residence, that Cincinnati was destined to be expected great future growth, dot the map the great metropolis of America's heartland." of the Midwest. James Hall, an early traveler A St. Louis journalist in 1858 asserted that in the region, noted that the "o priori reason­ within the lifetime of his readers the Missis­ ing" which had determined the location of sippi Valley would contain 150 million peo­ many towns in the West had often been ple and would completely eclipse the East­ proved fallacious. Pointing to an example of ern seaboard in importance. As part of this a magnificent potential city which had ini­ development, St. Louis would become the tially seemed to enjoy every advantage but "great commercial emporium of the conti­ which had subsequently become the "resi­ nent," the central world distribution point dence only of frogs and musquitoes," he ob­ for the commerce of Europe and Asia." Dur­ served that a city required a "concurrence of ing the 1850's, the period in which Gilpin diversity of circumstances" and a "combina­ began to gain prominence, Jessup W. Scott, tion of events" of such complexity that suc­ a Toledo editor and a frequent contributor cess could not be anticipated solely in terms to such national journals as Hunt's Mer­ of a site's natural advantages." Despite the chants' Magazine and De Bow's Review, as­ failure of numerous early city speculations, serted that cities in the Midwest would in­ optimistic geographical justification of urban evitably eclipse those of the seaboard. He ambitions continued as settlement moved won considerable attention for his reflec­ westward from the Mississippi Valley. At tions on the location of the new national me­ the close of the Civil War, Albert Richard­ tropolis to succeed New York. His view of son in Beyond the IMississippi wrote of the the significance of the mid-continent closely "New Babylons" springing up along the Mis­ paralleled Gilpin's. "The centre of power, souri River. Each of these, he said, had beau­ numerical, political, economical, and social," tifully lithographed maps showing magnificent he wrote, "is . . . indubitably, on its steady city development and railroads converging in march from the Atlantic border toward the all directions. In many cases, however, not a interior of the continent. That it will find a single habitation had actually been built at resting place somewhere, in its broad interior the site. Richardson warned immigrants and plain, seems as inevitable as the continued investors to turn "deaf ears to plausible the­ movement of the earth on its axis."" orists with elaborate maps, who prove geo­ graphically, climatically, and statistically, that nnHAT Gilpin's theories of the West were the great city must spring up in some new -•- related to this urban promotional tradi­ locality.'"' tion is demonstrated most clearly by his Many local spokesmen, in justifying their experiences in the Kansas City area. At the community's ambitions in terms of natural time he settled in western Missouri, a num­ advantages, adopted mid-continental concep­ ber of small trading communities—Indepen­ tions similar to those employed by Gilpin. dence, Westport, the town of Kansas (soon In an 1849 address, Governor William Bebb to be called Kansas City)—had sprung up of Ohio predicted that within a hundred near the Missouri River. In 1841 none of years the Atlantic slope would have a popu­ these settlements contained more than a few lation of only 60 million people, while 200 hundred settlers. But during the 1840's the hundred million people would live in the Kawsmouth Region, because of its location Mississippi Valley. For numerous reasons he at the juncture of two major rivers, the Kan­ ruled out much growth for other western cities sas (Kaw) and Missouri, began to emerge

" Hall, The West, 227-228. Journal (St. Louis), II: 71-86 (February, 1849). ^^ Albert D. Richardson, Beyond the Mississippi " Jessup W. Scott, "Westward the Star of Empire," (Hartford, 1869), 58-59, 61. in De Bow's Review, XXVII: 132 (August, 1859). " "Cincinnati—Her Position, Duty and Destiny," For a discussion of Scott's importance, see Smith, in De Bow's Review, VI1:363 (October, 1849). Virgin Land, 183-186. " "St. Louis—Its Early History," in The Western

26 GLAAB : WILLIAM GILPIN prominently in geographic speculations about dependence City Council extended the limits the future of America. Independence had of the town around his settlement. He orga­ gained some prominence as the site of the ill- nized a company to develop the addition, fated effort of the Mormons to build the city built a road from Independence to the river, of Zion in the 1830's. Benton's plan for a and hired an engineer to plat the area into transcontinental railroad along the 39th town lots.'^ parallel central route focussed widespread To promote this speculation, Gilpin pre­ attention on the locale. Advocates of the route pared a map of "Centropolis" to circulate predicted that eventually the area would be to potential investors. Although no copies the site of a great western city. This was par­ of this map are known to have survived, it ticularly true after Benton's 1853 speaking apparently showed the national capitol and tour along the Missouri River on behalf of national observatory located in the heart of his plan." Gilpintown, which served as the center of a As a political associate of Benton, Gilpin magnificent city embracing an area of over helped to develop the rationale for the central a hundred square miles.^* Gilpin went East route. In a series of speeches, pamphlets, to try to obtain financing for the ambitious and memoranda, dating from the 1840's, he project but was unsuccessful and delayed re­ fitted the Benton proposal to mid-continental turning. Other members of the town com­ conceptions. The route, he asserted, con­ pany brought suit and obtained a judgement formed to the natural grades between the two against him. He eventually met his obliga­ oceans. It was "exactly central," vindicating tions, but the project failed completely and and exemplifying the "sublime order and fit­ became the subject of considerable derision ness of nature.'"* Benton defended his plan in the region. Temporary misfortune, how­ in virtually identical terms. In a famous ever, seldom discouraged urban prophets. As­ Congressional speech on the subject, he cited serting that he had merely put the site of the Humboldt as an authority and predicted that great central city ten miles too far east, in "a line of oriental and almost fabulous cities 1858 Gilpin prepared a second map of "Cen­ . . . Tyres, Sidons, Palmyras, Balbecs," were tropolis" which corresponded rather accurate­ destined to spring up along the route.^^ ly to the present area of greater Kansas City.^* From the beginning of his residency in Although Kansas City at this date probably the Kawsmouth region, Gilpin was involved in had only a population of about 4,000, it had town-promoting ventures. As a lawyer he eclipsed Independence as the local trade cen­ represented the two St. Louis members of ter. Any speculations on the site of the great the Town of Kansas company, which had central city had to center on the newer com­ been organized in 1838, and oversaw the munity. settlement of its tangled affairs in the courts. As part of these promotional ventures, Gil­ In the 1840's he purchased a parcel of land pin in 1853, had developed an explicit theory just north of Independence along the Missouri of city location to justify Independence's River in an area that came to be called claim to urban greatness.^ The town, he as- Gilpintown. Through his persuasion, the In­

" The best account of the early years of the re­ Webb, "Major William Gilpin, the Prophet of gion is contained in William H. Miller, The History Kansas City," in Missouri Valley Historical So­ of Kansas City (Kansas City, 1881), 8-126. For ciety Annals (Kansas City), 1:114^118 (October, material on the Benton plan, see Leroy Hafen and 1921). Carrie W. Whitney, Kansas City, Mis­ Ann W. Hafen, eds., Central Route to the Pacific, souri, Its History and People, 1808—1908 (Chi­ by Gwinn Harris Heap. (Far West and Rockies cago, 1908), I, 666-671, was the first Kansas Series, Glendale, California, 1957), VH, 25-71. City historian to attempt to evaluate Gilpin's role =" Gilpin, Mission, 198; see also 201. in the area; her material was based largely on in­ '^ Cong. Globe, 31 Cong., 2 Sess. (December 16, terviews with old settlers. 1850), 56-57. ^ "McCoy Scrapbook," pp. 33b-c. '^ The Ferrill interview contains Gilpin's own ^ The map is reproduced in Whitney, Kansas City, account of his years in Independence. See also Kan­ I, 667, and in the Kansas City Star, May 26, 1901. sas City Star, February 18, 1900; Kansas City Jour­ ^ William Gilpin, "The Cities of Missouri," in nal, April 23, 1894; Kansas City Post, April 13, The Western Journal and Civilian (St. Louis), XI: 1924; "Scrapbook of John Calvin McCoy," pp. 31^0 (October, 1853). 33b-c, Kansas City (Mo.) Public Library; W. L.

27 At the time Gilpin wrote numerous rail­ roads were being projected west of the Missis­ sippi River, and this had to be taken into ac­ count in any prediction about the future location of great cities in mid-America. Al­ though it was soon to be conclusively demon­ strated that railroads could be built virtually anywhere, decisively altering natural pat­ terns of city location, prophecy lagged be­ hind technology, and spokesmen for aspir­ ing communities generally argued that rail­ roads would always be bound by the logic of river courses and natural physical chan­ Kansas City Star, May 26, 1901 nels of trade and communication. In advanc­ Gilpin's prophetic map of 18.59, predicting the area of ing the claims of Independence Gilpin pro­ present-day greater Kansas City. jected a great north-south railroad to run from Independence to Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico, which, he asserted, would conform to the pattern of continental forces. Advanc­ serted, occupied a key point on the zodiac ing a common point of view that persisted of the westward movement. Throughout his­ in western promotional writing until late in tory man had erected the world's cities along the century, he asserted that such a line great navigable rivers, the Ganges, Nile, or would prove to be the means by which the Danube, which ran through broad fertile ba­ West escaped the exploitation of the East. sins. A physical law locating emporiums a As part of this essay in town booming, Gil­ hundred leagues apart had operated along the pin enunciated the themes that he repeated rivers of North America. Gilpin argued that over and over again in his later writing: the if a reader were to make even a slight in­ rise of the Mississippi Valley to dominance spection of a map of the river system of the in the nation; the federal government as an world, such as Humboldt had prepared, his agent of the coastal maritime power suppress­ eyes would immediately be drawn to the por­ ing the interests of the West; and the view tion of the Missouri River running east from that the Great Plains was not a desert but the mouth of the Kansas to St. Louis and a pastoral garden. he would see that Independence, because of At a later date Gilpin again turned to the its location at the western end of this natural subject of the location of the metropolis of throughway, was destined to be the next great the center. "As the site for the central city American metropolis. St. Louis and Indepen­ of the 'Basin of the Mississippi,' " he wrote dence, he wrote, "stand out upon the face in Mission of the North American People, of the continent like eyes in the human head." "to arise prospectively upon the developments No mere works of man could alter the rise now maturing this city, Kansas City, at the of Independence to metropolis. "The pecu­ mouth of the Kansas, has the start, the geo­ liar configuration of the continent," he de­ graphical position, and the existing elements clared, "and its rivers and plains make these with which any rival will contend in vain." two natural focal points. This will not be All the developments affecting the West fo­ interfered with by any railroads or any other cussed at this point—the settlement of the pas­ public works which may be constructed by toral garden, the gold discoveries in the arts, as these latter are successful and per­ Rocky Mountains, and the transcontinental manent only when they conform with the railroad. "There must be a great city here," water grades of nature and the natural laws Gilpin concluded, "such as antiquity built at which condense society."^ the head of the Mediterranean and named Jerusaleum, Tyre, Alexandria, and Constan­ tinople; such as our own people name New "^Ibid., 40. 28 GLAAB WILLIAM GILPIN

York, New Orleans, San Francisco, St. western enterprises, would have been unique Louis."" had he not adopted the approach he did. The evolution of this prophecy demon­ In Kansas City during the late 1850's, strated the essential opportunism of appeals a period in which the town grew rapidly to nature in western town and city promo­ as a transfer point for the overland trade to tion. In its initial form, as published in an the southwest and as a market center serving article in the National Intelligencer, Gilpin the first substantial settlement in Kansas Ter­ obviously intended it to apply to Indepen­ ritory, local promoters used geographic ap­ dence. He left "this city" unnamed in the peals with great effectiveness."" Because of text but submitted the essay under an Inde­ Gilpin's activities in the area, they often em­ pendence dateline.'"' When he included the ployed his arguments directly. Charles Spal­ article in The Central Gold Region three ding, a young civil engineer and professional years later, he identified "this city" as "Kan­ promoter supported by the chamber of com­ sas City, at the mouth of the Kansas" by a merce and city council in writing a book footnote. In Mission of the North American about the town, acknowledged his indebted­ People, the identifying phrase finally found ness to the "master scholar of Interior Geo­ its way into the text. As in the case of "Cen­ graphy," and for the major portion of the first tropolis," reality forced Gilpin to move his chapter of his book condensed Gilpin's pas­ great central city westward. toral garden essay."' In portraying the pros­ pects of the young town, Spalding left no f^ ILPIN'S advocacy of the pastoral garden doubt that geographic forces would in the long ^^ view of the plains was also related to run prove decisive in making Kansas City his promotional interests. Some writers have a metropolis. It enjoyed unparalleled natural treated Gilpin as an ideological villain whose advantages of soil, climate, and rivers which incorrect analysis of the nature of the region came "stamped with the patent of the crea­ became so firmly entrenched that it was re­ tor." Following Gilpin, he argued that nature sponsible for much of the later inefficient created great cities approximately 350 miles federal land and conservation policy in the apart along major rivers. Because of Kansas west.''" Quite apart from the merits of the City's strategic location, it was "her destiny," opposing arguments on the fundamental cha­ Spalding wrote, to become "the extreme racter of the plains, this type of attack un- western and central emporium of mountain, deremphasizes the fact that geography in prairie and river commerce.""'' western town promotion served as a tactical Johnston Lykins, a merchant and real estate weapon designed to promote local economic promoter who because of early fortuitous land ends. Town planning often preceeded large- purchases at the site of Kansas City became scale migration into frontier areas. Success in interested in its development, translated the these urban enterprises depended on the in­ Gilpin vision into a plan for a magnificent set tensive settlement of an immediate agricul­ of railroads radiating from the city. Lykins, tural hinterland, and every town spokesman like Gilpin, had the intellectual credentials in the communities on the edge of the plains necessary for the presentation of this type was forced to adopt some version of the gar­ of promotional writing. A physician, an In­ den view in order to encourage this develop­ dian missionary at an early date in the border ment. Gilpin, who as a lawyer, editor, and country, a linguist, and a student of geology, promoter was involved in any number of he had built a regional reputation as an autho­ rity on western topography and resources.""

^ Gilpin, Mission, 76. Kansas (Kansas City, 1858, facsimile edition, Colum­ ^ National Intelligencer, October 13, 1857. bia, Mo., 1950), 10-14. ^ See, for example, Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth ^Ibid., 60, 70, 111. Meridian, xix, 1-8, 351-367. "" For a sketch of Lykins, see Charles N. Glaab, °° For contemporary local comment on Gilpin, see "Business Patterns in the Growth of a Midwestern Western Journal of Commerce (Kansas City), No­ City," in The Business History Review, XXXIII: vember 13, 27, December 25, 1858. 165-166 (Summer, 1959). "' Charles C. Spalding, Annals of the City of

29 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

In a series of 1855—1856 newspaper articles when the passage from Galveston to Lake Su­ signed "L," collected in a pamphlet shortly perior will be as through an enchanted Eden.""" after their publication, Lykins set out a theo­ The Lykins plan, one of the first comprehen­ ry of economic history that paralleled that sive pronouncements on railroads in the bor­ of Benton and Gilpin."' "Commerce," he der region, harmonized and guided the ef­ wrote, "like the star of empire wends its way forts of Kansas City promoters to attract rail­ to the West; and commerce creates at given roads being built into the region. In part, its distances commercial centres." The location existence accounted for their success in win­ of great American cities—New York, Balti­ ning an intense struggle with rival commu­ more, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis— nities in the region for railroad connections. provided evidence, he argued, that the laws Robert Thompson Van Horn, editor of the of progress always created major emporiums Western Journal of Commerce, a member of three or four hundred miles apart. The stage the inner circle of leaders in the young com­ of continental development dictated the ap­ munity, and perhaps the single most impor­ pearance of a new one; the logic of geogra­ tant figure in the early history of the city, phy—of river courses and distances—pointed was an assiduous student of Gilpin. In his clearly to Kansas City. editorials, he continually provided his readers Lykins neatly boxed the compass in pro­ with detailed lessons in mid-continental geo­ jecting a number of railroads that would in­ graphy, all of which pointed to the inevitable evitably be built as part of this development. rise of Kansas City to the position of metropo­ The transcontinental railroad running along lis. "God has marked out by topography the the Kansas River valley would tap the rich lines of commerce," he told a meeting of local prairies, the "modern Egypt"—an image fre­ business leaders in 1857, "and by the ranges of quently employed in contemporary promotio­ mountains and courses of rivers has fixed its nal writings about the plains. The Pacific centers and marts—and it is by studying these Railroad of Missouri eastward to St. Louis, great tracings of the Almighty's finger that a line north to the Great Lakes, and a rail­ the pioneer of trade and the herald of civili­ road to Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico zation has selected the site of these gigantic would help to converge the commerce of the cities of the Republic, and which has fixed world on Kansas City. Although Lykins ad­ upon the rock-bound bay of the Missouri and mitted that the design was ambitious, he was Kansas as the last great seat of wealth, trade sure it would be realized. The laws of nature and population in the westward march of com­ guaranteed this outcome."" merce toward the mountain basins of the As was often the case in speculations about Mississippi and Pacific. If men will only study interior railroads, the north-south line parti­ topography the problem is solved.""' cularly intrigued Lykins. A year after his ori­ Kansas City promoters found the doctrine ginal article, he wrote that its completion of nature a convenient tool to solidify com­ would make Kansas City the "grand empo­ munity support for bond issues and other cri­ rium of the West." Contemplating the future tical local choices and to attract national at­ of the mid-continent, he conjured up the line tention to the claims of the town. But Gilpin's of magic cities, so common in geographical theory could readily be adapted to the am­ prophecies of the period. "Cities at some bitions of other communities. In fact, in one day," he declared in a flight of visionary rhe­ case Gilpin himself made the necessary trans­ toric, "greater than Babylon, Nineveh, or formations. Having acquired a stake in several Thebes will tower above its green hills and Colorado enterprises, in the postwar years he become the wonder and glory of the world;—

"* [Johnston Lykins], Railroads Chartered and '"'• Ibid. Profected Centering at Kansas City, Mo., with Many ^° Enterprise (Kansas City), February 14, 1857. Other Interesting Facts (n.p., n.d.). "'Western Journal of Commerce (Kansas City), January 2, 1858.

30 GLAAB : WILLIAM GILPIN focussed his attention on Denver as a poten­ tion no longer decisively affected city loca­ tial new metropolis. In an essay entitled Notes tion. The new rationale harmonized with on Colorado, he asserted that once again the Gilded Age emphasis on the businessman pioneer population moving ever westward as hero; promoters now argued that commu­ along the Axis of Intensity had begun to con­ nities would realize their ambitions only if dense itself in force. The settlers had chosen local business leaders demonstrated the pro­ Denver, a "focal point of impregnable power per kind of entrepreneurial spirit. Although in the topographical configuration of the we commonly associate this later doctrine with continent." Ultimately, Gilpin argued, Denver the Midwest promotional tradition, two gene­ would also become the gateway for eastward rations of appealing to nature also left its migration along the Axis of Intensity toward legacy in the culture of the region. In fact, the world's vital center, the Mississippi Val­ because local tradition and historiography ley."" have so thoroughly assimilated deterministic theories of city location and growth, historians of urbanization have sometimes accepted re­ ILPIN'S arguments continued to influence fined versions of the promotional argument. G city spokesmen into the post-Civil War Although superficially beguiling, this view is era. Logan Reavis, who in the late 1860's and difficult to sustain, for the history of many 1870's published a yearly edition of a volume American cities, if closely examined, de­ advertising St. Louis, cited Humboldt's view monstrates a decidedly undeterministic pat­ that great cities grow along the heart of the tern of false starts, fundamental changes in Isothermal Zone and quoted the Gilpin version the direction of community policy, and dis­ of Humboldt to justify his contention that cernible turning points. St. Louis would continue to be the great me­ Nevertheless, the doctrine of natural ad­ tropolis of the center."" Appropriately, Reavis vantages, in all its simple and complex forms, dedicated a visionary pamphlet presenting is significant; for its wide and effective an elaborate geographical argument for re­ use as an instrument of town promotion de­ moval of the national capital to St. Louis to monstrates the vigor of place and distance Gilpin, "a man of rare genius and advanced concepts in the early and mid-nineteenth cen­ thought, a prophet and pioneer of American tury vision of the American west. The influ­ civilization."''" ence of these concepts in a variety of con­ Gradually in the postwar period a doctrine texts—as forces in American expansion or in of enlightened enterprise, which held that the development of western sectionalism, cities grew because aggressive, farsighted for example—has been sensed but little ex­ citizens supported the right community plored. Perhaps the originality of Gilpin as causes, supplanted appeals to nature in urban a theorist of the West has been exaggerated, promotional writing." By this time the loca­ but he remains an intriguing figure. In spite tion of main lines in the expanding railroad of the close relationship of his ideas to rather network had demonstrated conclusively what narrow economic interests, he supplied the had only been vaguely sensed before: river most vivid statement of a vital strain in patterns and natural avenues of communica­ American thought.

"* William Gilpin, Notes on Colorado (London, Theodore Brown, "The Usable Past: A Study of 1870), 32. Historical Traditions in Kansas City," in The Hunt­ ^° Logan A. Reavis, Saint Louis, The Future Great ington Library Quarterly, XXIII: 237-259 (May, City of the World (St. Louis, 2nd. edition, 1870), 1960), and A. Theodore Brown and Charles N. 9-11. Glaab, "Nature and Enterprise: Two Studies in the *° Logan A. Reavis, The National Capital Is Mov­ Culture of 19th-century Midwestern City Growth," able (St. Louis, 1871). in Bulletin of the Central Mississippi Valley Ameri­ "• For an examination of this theme in Kansas can Studies Association (Parkville, Mo.), 11:1-19 City historiography, see R. Richard Wohl and A. (Fall, 1958).

31 WILLIAM F. VILAS AS A BUSINESSMAN

By ROY N. LOKKEN

N the March day in 1897, when William ued at $103,371.67. WilHam F. Vilas inherited O Freeman Vilas left the United States Sen­ about $25,000 of this estate,^ and it is said ate, he had broken with the Democratic Party that when he entered President Cleveland's over the twin issues of Bryanism and free sil­ cabinet his estate was worth $300,000.^ ver, and his departure from the political scene Just as his father had increased his inherited was, as things turned out, a permanent one. wealth by profitable financial ventures, so Wil­ He was not to be fifty-seven until July 9; he liam F. Vilas, in 1897, determined to enlarge was in good health and vigor; and he felt pre­ his moderate fortune. During the preceding pared for many more years of productive labor. years Vilas had laid a foundation for future His long experience in public life was yet to business operations. He owned considerable be drawn upon in many ways other than polit­ real property and real estate mortgages in Wis­ ical. He was widely respected as an attorney, consin and neighboring states, a controlling and his law practice in Madison assured him interest in the Nekoosa Paper Company, tim­ of a comfortable living in the coming years. ber lands in northwestern Wisconsin and west­ Vilas, however, was not a man to rest on his ern Washington, a lumber mill at Ashland, and laurels, or to settle down comfortably in a a cranberry marsh near Babcock, Wisconsin, routine existence. He inherited from his father which he had long intended to develop.'' Much and his father's father their restless ambition of this property and business investment gave and acquisitiveness. William F. Vilas' paternal Vilas a comfortable income, but he needed to grandfather, Moses, had left a comfortable devote more time to them if he was to accu­ home in Watertown, Massachusetts, to pioneer mulate the millions it was his ambition to pos­ in frontier Vermont. There he had created an sess before his time ran out. 800-acre farm out of a primeval wilderness, Much has been written about Vilas as a and he left an inheritance, substantial for those public man, an orator, a "doctrinaire Demo­ times, to his son, Levi, the father of William F. crat." Very little attention has been given to Vilas.^ Levi increased his inheritance by Vilas as a businessman.^ Yet it is to his suc­ shrewd investments in loans and real estate. cess as a businessman and financier that Wis­ When he died in 1879, he left an estate val­ consin owes his most lasting legacy—the Wil-

' Charles H. Vilas, A Genealogy of the Descendants 1868 to 1885. of Peter Vilas (Madison, 1875), 116, 118; Horace *L. M. Alexander to William F. Vilas, Port Ed­ Samuel Merrill, William Freeman Vilas, Doctrinaire wards, Wisconsin, December 2, 1892; Merrill, op. cit., Democrat (Madison, 1954), 6, 7. Cited hereafter as 250; John H. Knight to Vilas, Ashland, June 7, 1897; Merrill. Vilas to T. E. Nash, Washington, D. C, February 29, ' Dane County Court, Probate Records, Vol. 1, Page 1892. Unless otherwise indicated, all correspondence 366, Box 326, Estate of Levi B. Vilas, preserved in cited is in the William F. Vilas Papers, preserved at Archives Division, State Historical Society of Wis­ the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. consin. " Professor Horace Samuel Merrill's interesting bi­ " Merrill, op cit., 252. Vilas was first Postmaster ography of Vilas contains some material on Vilas' bus­ General (1885-1888), then Secretary of Interior iness activities, but it is subordinated to the author's (1888-1889). A graduate of the University of Wis­ main theme, Vilas as a "doctrinaire Democrat." Cf. consin, he had been a member of its law faculty from Merrill, op. cit., 22-29, 244-259.

32 LOKKEN : VILAS AS BUSINESSMAN

sold pine, hemlock, hardwood, and farming lands, city lots, acreage, and residences, and rented office space and residences.^ He also acted either as Vilas' agent or his partner in the management of Vilas' timber and lumber­ ing interests in northwestern Wisconsin. Although Vilas owned a mill and dock at Ashland in 1897, he was not directly engaged in lumbering operations. His practice was to rent the mill to lumbermen at a specified rate per thousand board feet of lumber processed and to contract with loggers to fell timber on his lands and drive the logs to the dock and mill. Logging and driving operations took place during the winter, so that finished lum­ ber would be ready for sale and shipment the following summer. Vilas and Knight sought contractors who would log and drive at a low price, thereby guaranteeing to Vilas a larger return on his investment. Also, they looked for opportuni­ ties to buy up timber from homesteaders at a low price to supplement profits realized from logging on Vilas' own lands. Lumber prices were tied to farm prices, and Vilas and Knight kept a weather eye on farm price fluctuations, fn August, 1897, Knight informed Vilas that The James Reeve Stuart portrait of Vilas, owned by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. "it seems so sure that not only present prices for agricultural products wifl be maintained but will greatly improve that the farmers will liam F. Vilas Trust for the University of have money next year. If so lumber will very Wisconsin." The purpose of this essay is to pre­ greatly advance in price."^ sent some aspects of Vilas as a businessman Vilas owned large stands of timber in Ash­ and financier. land and Bayfield counties, on and near Brule River, near Beaver Bay, and on Presque Is­ ILAS' first love was the pine. From the land. In 1899 Knight estimated that the timber Vearly 1870's he had been enthusiastic about stand near Beaver Bay consisted of 14,850,000 timberlands and lumbering. Until after the board feet of pine, considerable cedar and turn of the century be based his search for spruce, and some tamarack." During the win­ wealth chiefly on the lumbering industry. As ter of 1896-1897 the pine on Vilas' Presque early as 1881 he had associated himself with Island lands had been cut off and sold to a Colonel John H. Knight, his friend from pre­ Detroit buyer, leaving a large quantity of law school days, in the lumbering business in spruce. Spruce was in demand for pulp, and northwestern Wisconsin. Colonel Knight was a the selling price for spruce stumpage ranged Civil War veteran, former Indian agent, and from 25 cents to 50 cents per cord, depending frontier lawyer and promoter, who in 1897 on how scattered the stand was and how far it owned a hotel (Knight Hotel) in Ashland, and would have to be hauled.^"

° For a detailed account of this Trust, see Wisconsin "Knight to Vilas, Ashland, May 28, 1897; Knight Legislative Council, 1961 Report, Vol. I. to Vilas, Ashland, August 25, 1897. ' From the letterhead. Knight to Vilas, Ashland, " Knight to Vilas, Ashland, February 24, 1899. April 27, 1897. "J. F. Van Dooser & Co., to Vilas, Ashland, Sep­ tember 16, 1897.

33 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

During 1897 and 1898 Vilas' attention was and Vilas were unable to agree as to the dis­ focused on his timber interests on the Brule position of the logs, negotiations broke down.-'''^ River. The correspondence which passed be­ Pierce threatened Vilas' logging contractors tween Vilas, Knight, and others during this with legal action for trespass if they attempted period reveals Vilas to have been a tough and to drive logs on the tote road to the slough, resourceful in-fighter in business matters. He and backed up his threat by having a wire was considerate of the rights of others and was fence constructed from the Brule River across capable of conciliation and compromise, but the tote road. Reluctant to cut the fence and he sacrificed neither profit nor principle in thereby precipitate a war, Vilas' contractors his relations with business rivals. These char­ were forced to detour the logs around the dis­ acteristics of Vilas the businessman were dra­ puted area at higher cost. Knight was infu­ matically revealed in the following incident. riated. He wrote to Vilas that Pierce's action A 40-acre tract of Vilas' timberland in Doug­ was "purely meanness," and he swore that he las county lay near a big slough which emptied would, in the end, "break up" Pierce's fishing into the Brule River. Logs were driven along preserve.^^ a tote road to the slough, and from there Vilas approached the situation more calmly floated into the river. The tote road extended than did Knight. He considered another offer across land owned by H. C. Pierce, a St. Louis from Pierce to purchase the 40-acre tract, this businessman who owned and operated a resort time for $3,300, provided that Vilas would business on the Brule River. Pierce strongly ob­ agree not to cut any more timber on the land jected to the floatage of logs on the river, be­ and to indemnify Pierce against damage or loss cause he believed it detrimental to the recrea­ to his Brule River resort property resulting tional uses of the stream, particularly fishing. from driving logs through or past it. Vilas re­ He had constructed a dam on the river to create plied that, if Pierce would allow him 25,000 a fishing preserve for the enjoyment of his re­ additional feet of logs which had been cut, he sort patrons, and he feared that log-driving on would accept the purchase price offered and the river would permanently ruin the dam guarantee Pierce's dam and resort property and fishing preserve. During the winter of against damage, "if other terms agreed to." 1897, when contractors were driving logs from Pierce balked. He demanded to know the Vilas lands into the river, Pierce instructed his meaning of the words, "if other terms agreed resort superintendent to prohibit the driving to," and complained that Vilas' men were "cut­ of logs across his property to the slough. At ting logs from this forty as fast as possible and the same time Pierce offered to purchase from trespassing upon my land in putting them into Vilas the 40-acre tract.^'^ the river."" Pierce's offer was not acceptable to Vilas. Vilas instructed his contractors to suspend The offer amounted to only $3,000 for the 40- logging operations. Nevertheless, negotiations acre tract, including all logs which had been once more collapsed. Pierce fenced off his dam cut and which were lying in the river. Knight in the Brule and a portion of Vilas' land sixty- suggested that, inasmuch as Pierce was anxious five feet west of the dam, thereby preventing to protect his fishing preserve, he might be the logging contractors from driving logs into willing to pay a higher price and buy addi­ the river even though they did not use the tional acreage. Vilas was determined that at tote road. Knight, who was more a Pier 7 least he should realize some profit from the brawler than an in-fighter, wanted to dynamite logs which had already been cut. When Pierce the dam, but Vilas dissuaded him.^^

" Knight to Vilas, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Decem­ and Charles T. Stevens, sidi-contractor, St. Louis, ber 12, 1897. Missouri, December 22, 1897; Knight to Vilas, Ash­ " J. D. Johnson to Vilas, St. Louis, Missouri, De- land, January 1, 1898. cemlDcr 20, 1897; Knight to Vilas, Bethlehem, Penn­ " H. C. Pierce to Vilas, St. Louis, Missouri, January sylvania, Deceml)er 14, 1897. J. D. Johnson was the 3, 1898 (telegram) ; Vilas to Pierce, Madison, Jan­ .superintendent of Pierce's Brule River resort. uary 3, 1898 (telegram) ; Pierce to Vilas, St. Louis, " J. D. Johnson to Martin Hendrickson, contractor. January 4, 1898 (telegram). '" Knight to Vilas, Ashland, January 5, 1898.

34 LOKKEN : VILAS AS BUSINESSMAN

Pierce took his quarrel to the courts and ers of the Northern Electrical Manufacturing sought an injunction against driving logs Company, which he and Arthur 0. Fox and through his property. Vilas and Knight quickly two others had incorporated in 1895 for the seized the opportunity to contend that public manufacture of direct and alternating current rights of navigation on the Brule River were at power transmission machinery. In 1899 Vilas issue. Knight obtained affidavits from expe­ considered a proposal to organize a new com­ rienced river men to prove that the Brule was pany for the installation of an electric light­ navigable, i. e., floatable, in a state of nature. ing system on railroad trains. Electric lighting Pierce himself added fuel to the fire Vilas and in railroad passenger coaches, pullmans, dining Knight were building against him by having cars, mail cars, and cabooses was seldom used his men install booms across the river to pre­ at the time because of the cost, although several vent log-driving.^'' All of this was grist for a systems were being proposed. Gas lighting was lawyer's mill. When the case was brought into still the principal means of illumination on the court in February, 1898, Vilas successfully de­ railroads. H. F. Roach, a St. Louis inventor, fended the public right to float logs on navi­ had devised a system of lighting railway cars gable streams.-''' electrically by means of a storage battery in­ After his victory, Vilas, in a conciliatory stalled on each car. Roach and his friends, mood, offered to sell the 40-acre tract to Pierce however, lacked sufficient capital to put the for twice as much money as Pierce had origi­ electric lighting system on the market. Hence, nally offered. Pierce, replying through his at­ they approached Vilas, partly because he was a torney, demanded conditions unacceptable to national figure and could lend prestige to the Vilas, and there were no further negotia­ business, partly because he had ready invest­ tions. Pierce's resort superintendent was re­ ment capital, and partly because they hoped ported as having vowed "a fight to the 'bitter to use the Northern Electrical Manufacturing end,' " but Vilas had no further trouble with Company as their manufacturing plant. Pierce.^** Vilas was interested. He proposed the or­ Vilas accumulated much of his wealth in log­ ganization of a company in which 50 per cent ging and lumbering operations, but his inter­ of the initial stock issue would be owned by est was not limited to the "noble pine." Per­ himself and Fox and 50 per cent by Roach and haps the foundation of Vilas' wealth was real his two partners. Vilas and Fox would provide estate. He owned a substantial amount of real the manufacturing plant, and Vilas would fi­ property, both city lots and farm acreage, and nance the company, act as its legal counsel, and realized considerable profits in rent collections, take care of the initial experiments without interest on mortgages, and sale of real estate. expense to the company or Roach. Roach His correspondence indicates that he was a agreed, but wanted financial guarantees scrupulous landlord who dealt fairly with his against failure of the proposed company.^" tenants. In most, if not all cases, he conducted The proposed company was never formed. his real estate affairs through realty and prop­ Vilas, appearing eager to go into the business, erty management agencies.'^'' pressed for an early meeting with Roach. Roach, however, had already made an agree­ T7"ILAS was also attracted by the economic ment with the Great Northern Railway Com­ ' possibilities of electricity. He was the pany to install his electric lighting system in president and one of the two major stockhold­ one of its trains as an experiment, and the

'"Knight to Vilas, Ashland, January 28, 1898; Forks, North Dakota, August 18, 1897; Thomas Bar- Knight to Vilas, Ashland, February 12, 1898; Knight don to Vilas, Ashland, October 14, 1897; Agreement to Vilas, Ashland, February 17, 1898. between Vilas and G. W. Dennis, May 16, 1900; G. " Alexander McDougall to Knight, West Superior, W. Brown to Vilas, Pittsville, December 20, 1900; February 25, 1898. Bardon to Vilas, Ashland, April 19, 1904; Cari A. '"C. E. Buell to Vilas, Madison, March 8, 1898; Rudquist to Vilas, Ashland, December 10, 1904. Knight to Vilas, Ashland, July 6, 1898. ^° H. F. Roach and others to Vilas, St. Louis, Mis­ '" For example, E. J. Lander & Co. to Vilas, Grand souri, July 29, 1899.

35 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

one-third to one-half the cost of the entire equipment." He wrote that the problem of cost had been "materially simplified" by stor­ age battery companies which had offered "to maintain the life and efficiency of the battery and supply the renewal plates at six per cent of the initial cost of the battery per year." He added that outside of the expense of maintain­ ing the storage battery there was "practically no other operating expense."-^ The unwillingness of the Great Northern Railway Company to adopt the Roach train Society's Iconographic Loliection lighting system decided Vilas not to invest in Vilas (seated), photographed ca. 1890 in his Wash­ it, in spite of the entreaties of Roach and his ington office by Frances Benfamin Johnston, "first partners.^* Vilas was investment-minded; he woman news photographer." was sufficiently progressive in outlook to be willing to accept and finance technological in­ railroad executives were "anxious for results." novations ; but he was also conservative enough Roach therefore hastened to complete the ex­ to avoid taking risks when there was no pros­ periment before continuing plans for the or­ pect of early and rewarding returns on his ganization of the proposed company.^^ investment. The train upon which the experiments were In 1901 the Stanley Electric Manufacturing conducted made several trial trips totaling Company in Trenton, New Jersey, approached more than one thousand miles. During those Vilas and Fox with an offer to buy up the en­ trips both the coach and the headlight and tire stock of the Northern Electrical Manufac­ other lights on the locomotive were illuminated turing Company. N. E. M. was a solvent com­ electrically. Executives of the Great Northern pany, and there appears to have been no com­ Railway Company proclaimed the experiment pelling reason for sale. The company had been a success, but refrained from making any organized in 1895 with a capital stock of $50,- changes in their lighting arrangements "at 000, consisting of 500 shares at $100 a share, present" because they were contemplating tn February, 1901, the articles of incorporation changes in the road's motive power. One offi­ of the company were amended to increase the cial assured Roach that his device was more capital stock to $500,000, consisting of 5,000 economical than other electrical systems which shares at $100 a share.^'^ A summary statement had been submitted to the company for light­ of the company in August, 1901, showed that ing trains, and he offered to "say a good word" assets totaled $609,847.01, capital stock for Roach to other railroads which might con­ amounted to $325,000, bifls payable $145,- sider the adoption of train lighting by electric­ 378.66, and accounts payable $139,465.35.2'5 ity.^^ Roach and his partners forwarded to These figures indicate that the company was in Vilas the letters from the Great Northern Rail­ no trouble, and might have continued to op­ way Company executives. Roach advised Vilas erate without transfer at a reasonable profit that the cost of the storage battery was "from to its stockholders, although probably without

=' Roach to Vilas, St. Louis, August 7, 1899; O. G. ''•' Roach and Selden to Vilas, St. Louis, June 13, Selden to Vilas, St. Louis, August 18, 1899. 1900. ''' D. Miller, Second Vice-President, Great Northern '° Northern Electrical Manufacturing Company In­ Railway Company, to "a gentleman in St. Louis," St. corporation Papers, Secretary of State, Incorporation Paul, Minnesota, April 21, 1900; Jas. N. Hill to Papers, File N 832, preserved in Archives Division, Roach, St. Paul, April 21, 1900; Roach and Selden State Historical Society of Wisconsin, cited hereafter to Vilas, St. Louis, June 8, 1900. as N.E.M. Incorporation Papers. "" Roach and Selden to Vilas, St. Louis, June 8, "" Summary Statement, Northern Electric Manufac­ 1900. turing Company, August 1, 1901, as per inventory June 29, 1901.

36 LOKKEN : VILAS AS BUSINESSMAN

any significant short-term capital expansion. ited. Competition was also limited, however, A study of the Vilas correspondence of this and the business had a good future if railroads period suggests that during the late years of his could be convinced that electricity for loco­ life Vilas was not interested in long-term in­ motive headlight illumination was more effi­ vestments, and was manipulating his financial cient and safe and not much more costly than affairs in such a manner as to realize quick the more primitive methods then in use. profits without taking undue risks. It is also The enactment by state legislatures of elec­ apparent that Vilas, in 1901 and 1902, was tric headlight laws enabled Vilas to expand withdrawing from N. E. M., and intended lo Pyle-National and increase production. Rail­ make his withdrawal as profitable to himself road locomotive engineers in Texas success- as circumstances permitted. On June 13, 1901, fuOy lobbied an electric headlight bill through he and Fox, who was the secretary of the com­ the Texas legislature in the early spring of pany, signed an agreement to sell and transfer 1907, and it was the first such state law en­ the N. E. M. stock to Stanley for $342,500."^ acted.-''' Immediately Vilas and other officers Meanwhile Vilas bought up shares from N. E. of Pyle-National pushed sales of electric head­ M. stockholders preparatory to the transfer.^** lights in Texas. The general manager of Pyle- The sale and transfer were consummated in National informed Vilas that the company had July, 1902.==" Although the Stanley Electric received "an order for 18 equipments for the Manufacturing Company officers asked Vilas Fort Worth & Rio Grande Division of the to continue as president of N. E. M. so that his Frisco R. R., all of which are influenced by name would continue to give prestige to the the new law which has been signed by the Gov­ company and its products, Vilas separated ernor."''^ The result of the Texas law was that from the company after 1902.^" Pyle-National business "showed a healthy in­ Vilas' interest in electric lighting for rail­ crease . . . over the preceding year before the road trains continued, nevertheless. By 1907 Texas law was passed."^''' he was president of the Pyle-National Electric The enactment of an electric headlight law Headlight Company, a Chicago firm which in Arkansas further stimulated demand, and manufactured electric headlights for railroad increased production was required to keep pace locomotives. The company was something of a with new orders. Repair part orders became family affair. Royal Cooper Vilas, a distant "extremely heavy," and a larger factory was relative who had long been associated with the needed to manufacture them."'^ Plant expan­ railroad business, had been the president of the sion was carried out, and new machinery was company until his death.^^ In 1907 the son of installed during the summer.''''' Sales for 1907 Royal Cooper Vilas, who bore the same name, totaled 2,415 equipments and, with repair was the sales agent of the company.^' Until parts included, amounted to $654,052.64. William F. Vilas assumed the presidency, the Gross profits totaled $404,718.57, and net firm operated on a small basis. Most railroads profits $348,198.76.'''*' Pyle-National was not did not use electric headlights on locomotives, a million dollar business, but it was a growing and the market for such headlights was lim­ one. During the months preceding Vilas'

"' Vilas and Fox, copy of agreement dated June 13, were descendants of Peter Vilas, the founder of the 1901. Vilas line. Charles H. Vilas, A Genealogy of the "'Agreements signed by H. H. Ratcliff, Madison, Descendants of Peter Vilas, 140. June 20, 1901; Edwin E. Bryant, Madison, June 25, '" Letterhead, Miss E. B, Gorrie to Vilas, Chicago, 1901; Jackson Renter, June 28, 1901. February 27, 1907. =" W. W. Cramwell to Vilas, Pittsfield, Mass., July ''' The Texas Railway Journal, March, 1907, p. 2, 12, 1902. clipping attached to Mark A. Ross to Vilas, Chicago, ™ The annual report of the company to the Secre­ March 12, 1907; Ross to Vilas, Chicago, April 11, tary of State for 1905 shows that Vilas was not one 1907. Ross was the treasurer and general manager of the six directors and officers of the company at that of Pyle-National. time. As there were only six stockholders in the com­ " Ross to Vilas, Chicago, April 11, 1907. pany at the time, it is clear that Vilas was not one of == Ross to Vilas, Chicago, May 6, 1907. them. The company was dissolved in December, 1910. '" Ross to Vilas, Chicago, May 17, 1907. N. E. M. Incorporation Papers. " Ross to Vilas, Chicago, August 7, 1907. "Both Royal Cooper Vilas and William F. Vilas '•'" Ross to Vilas, Chicago, January 10, 1908.

37 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961 death on August 27, 1908, electric headlight vicinity, were separately incorporated. Never­ legislation was being considered by the Okla­ theless, they were operationally interrelated, homa, North Carolina, and Georgia legisla­ and, as Vilas wrote to a friend, the first three tures.^'' The enactment of such legislation in companies were "really owned to a controlling more states promised to spur Pyle-National extent by the same men practically."*" The business and guarantee higher profits in future Nekoosa Paper Company purchased its raw years. materials from the other companies.*" To ex­ Vilas and the Pyle-National officers who pedite a more efficient and economical opera­ served under him made no attempt, however, tion of the companies, the major stockholders to influence electric headlight legislation in decided, early in 1908, to merge them. state legislatures. Information was provided In the spring of 1908 an agreement was on request, but the policy of the company was made to merge The Nekoosa Paper Company, to avoid lobbying. The general manager of Port Edwards Fibre Company, John Edwards Pyle-National assured Vilas that "all letters Manufacturing Company, and the Centralia written as to the time Equipments could be Pulp & Water Power Company with a capital furnished will be very conservative."*" stock of $3,000,000 and a bonded indebted­ ness of $1,000,000.*" Vflas did not attend the f I ^HE last major business transaction in which meeting at which this agreement was reached, -•- Vilas was involved before his death was but he acquiesced in it.*^ The evidence indi­ the merger which created the Nekoosa-Ed- cates, at any rate, that Vilas was the key finan­ wards Paper Company in 1908. When the Ne­ cial figure in the whole transaction, and he was koosa Paper Company, one of the participants kept closely informed of the merger. The chief in the merger, had been incorporated in 1893 participants in the merger were heavily in­ with a capital of $35,000, Vilas had been one debted to Vilas. G. F. Steele, the vice-presi­ of the incorporators and held $50,000 worth dent and general manager of Port Edwards of stock in equal partnership with six other Fibre Company, had borrowed $63,000 from stockholders.*^ In 1908 Vilas was a member Vilas, on which he paid 6 per cent interest per of the board of directors, and, although he did annum.*^ Nash owed a total of $105,000 to not attend all board meetings, he was kept in­ Vilas."" On May 1, 1908, the Port Edwards formed of major policy questions and deci­ Fibre Company borrowed from Vilas $55,000 sions.'*" Originally the intention had been to at an interest of 6 per cent per annum payable manufacture fifty tons of paper per day on semi-annually."-' four machines. By 1907 average daily produc­ After the merger was consummated in June, tion had risen to ninety-four tons.*^ Net profits 1908, Vilas became a member of the board of of the company between 1903 and 1907 aver­ directors of the newly organized Nekoosa-Ed- aged $170,000' a year." wards Paper Company. A receipt dated July 2, Until 1908 The Nekoosa Paper Company, 1908, indicated that Vilas exchanged the fol­ Port Edwards Fibre Company, John Edwards lowing for Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Company Manufacturing Company, and the Centralia bonds: fifty Port Edwards Fibre Company Pulp & Water Power Company, all in the same bonds; eight promissory notes of Thomas E.

'° Ross to Vilas, Chicago, February 10, 1908. •"^ For example, The Nekoosa Paper Co. in 1907 •'° Ross to Vilas, Chicago, February 12, 1908. purchased about fifteen tons per day of sulphite from •" L. M. Alexander to Vilas, Port Edwards, Decem­ Port Edwards Mfg. Co. Nash to Vilas, Grand Rapids, ber 2, 1892; Merrill, p. 250. December 9, 1907. "" Thomas E. Nast to Vilas, Nekoosa, January 17, •" Nash to Vilas, Grand Rapids, May 3, 1908. 1908. "Vilas to Wolf, June 17, 1908. " Nash to Vilas, Grand Rapids, Wis., December 9, •"* Agreement signed by Nash, Madison, March 16, 1907. 1906 (copy) ; G. F. Steele to Vilas, Port Edwards, "Nash to Vilas, Nekoosa, October 30, 1907, with December 26, 1907. enclosure: summary of report of Audit Co., audit of °° See Receipt, dated Madison, July 2, 1908, signed The Nekoosa Paper Co.; Nash to Vilas, Grand Rap­ by Guy Nash. ids, December 9, 1907. "' Promissory note. Port Edwards Fibre Co. to Vilas, "Vilas to Herman F. Wolf, June 17, 1908. May 1, 1908.

38 LOKKEN : VILAS AS BUSINESSMAN

Nash of $10,000 each, one of $11,000, and one dated August 27, 1902, as amended by a cod­ of $14,000; an agreement for payment of pro­ icil, dated June 2, 1903, this estate was left in portionable interest of G. F. Steele's debt; 500 trust to the end that the entire capital might shares of stock in the Nekoosa Paper Com­ be invested so as to yield "the best annual in­ pany; 300 shares of stock in the Jackson Mill­ come in money."'"' The net annual income, ing Company; a promissory note of G. F. Steele after reinvestment, or so much of it as they for $63,000; and other securities.'''^ The value desired, was to be paid out to Vilas' widow of some of the above securities is not readily and daughter so long as they should live. After apparent, but the indication is that Vilas owned the decease of the wife and daughter, the es­ more than half a million dollars interest in tate was to be given and conveyed to the State Nekoosa-Edwards' bonded indebtedness after of Wisconsin for the use of the University of the merger. Wisconsin under the specific terms of the will. No attempt will be made here to relate every The money was to be held in trust, and a por­ detail of Vilas' business activities during the tion of the net annual income was to be used last ten years of his life. Vilas' business involve­ to defray the cost of scholarships and profes­ ments and financial investments were numer­ sorships. The trustees were to set apart one-half ous and various.''^ Enough has been told, how­ of the annual net income for reinvestment until ever, to give the flavor of his business ventures the total invested capital of the estate amounted and financial resourcefulness. Had Vilas chosen to $20,000,000; after that one-quarter of the to devote the whole of his adult life to busi­ annual net income was to be reinvested until ness and finance instead of law, party politics, the total invested capital equalled $30,000,000. and statesmanship, he might have accumulated Thereafter further accumulation of capital far greater wealth and exercised greater influ­ was to cease and the total annual net income ence on American business than he did. There used for the University, unless the trustees de­ is little reason to doubt that he had the talents cided otherwise.^' Thereby Vilas assured con­ for it. The Bank of Wisconsin, of which Vilas tinued growth of his estate and, ultimately, the had been president until his death, wrote to productive use of that estate by the university his widow that Vilas' "high standing, influ­ he loved. ence, aid and counsel were of the utmost as­ Anna M. Vilas, widow of William F. Vilas, sistance to the Bank, and were much appre­ died on March 1, 1922. On December 18, ciated by us, as well as his courtesy and great 1959, Vilas' daughter, Mary Esther Vilas financial ability."'^* The Honorable James G. Hanks, passed away, and in February, 1961, Jenkins, Judge of the United States Circuit the Wisconsin legislature accepted the William Court, in his memorial before the Wisconsin F. Vilas Trust for the University of Wiscon­ Supreme Court, said of Vilas: "He was a man sin.^*' According to an inventory of the estate of business—displaying wonderful sagacity, published as of December 30, 1960, by the great practical common sense; but boldness far Wisconsin Legislative Council, the appraised removed from rashness, and so, in a compara­ value of the estate totaled $12,288,954.52.^'-' tively brief period he acquired wealth.""" Wisconsin owes this inheritance to the finan­ When William F. Vilas died on August 27, cial resourcefulness and foresight of one of her 1908, he left an estate valued at $1,828,934.71. most gifted citizens. Under the terms of his last will and testament.

"'Steele to Vilas, Port Edwards, June 24, 1908; ='Bank of Wisconsin to Mrs. William F. Vilas, Receipt, dated Madison, July 2, 1908, signed by Guy Madison, September 2, 1908. Nash. "^ Quoted in Wisconsin Legislative Council, 1961 ''^ At one time or another Vilas was a member of Report, 1, V. the board of directors of the Wisconsin Central Ry. "''• Ibid., 2. Co., and part owner of the Upson Lumber Co. at Up­ °' Ibid., 1-23. son, Wisconsin, and the Vilas Timber Co. in the state '" Ch. 4. Laws of Wisconsin, 1961. of Washington. The William F. Vilas Papers contain ™ Wisconsin Legislative Council, 1961 Report, Vol. many evidences of Vilas' real estate transactions and I, Appendix A, p. 3. short term loans to business associates.

39 RICHARD UPJOHN, ARCHITECT ANGLICAN CHAPELS IN THE WILDERNESS

BY RICHARD W. E. PERRIN in America between 1830 and 1860. While often adapted to residential structures, the best examples of Gothic Revival were the churches of the period. But even here the style often simulated effects by any avail­ able means rather than building in accordance ' I ''HE settlement of Wisconsin occurred at with Gothic as a structural system. -*- a time when many changes were taking A most interesting and famous architect place in Europe, with widespread reaction of the early American Gothic Revival was being felt in the United States. These changes Richard Upjohn,^ the architect of Trinity were not only of an economic and political Church in New York City. In 1857 Upjohn nature, but also cultural and religious. Def­ became the first president of the American initely interwoven with religious thought and Institute of Architects and has been called life was nineteenth-century Romanticism. It the most important figure in American archi­ was said that "The men of the Romantic tecture between Thomas Jefferson and H. H. Movement burnt what their teachers had wor­ Richardson.'' The best feature of Upjohn's shipped, and worshipped what their teachers work was the freedom of planning he achieved had burnt.'" The Romantic Movement was by using many separate Gothic elements, and not a mere attempt to walk back into the the more rustic and modest the buildings Middle Ages, but, prompted by a dislike of were, the more successful they seemed to be. the grey tones and stiff outlines of false His board-and-batten churches carried Gothic classicism, it became a genuine craving for Revival into an original phase. color and beauty as exemplified by traditions During this period settlements and com­ of the Church. In England, following the munities were being carved out of the Wis­ so-called Oxford Movement, the Camden So­ consin wilderness. All of the settlers were ciety was founded in 1839, thereby initiat­ by no means rough-and-ready frontiersmen, ing greater liturgical emphasis within the since many of them had left refined and cul­ Church of England and exerting strong in­ turally advanced surroundings both in this fluence upon architects to follow medieval country and abroad to seek their fortunes precedent." in the new land. As settlements were estab­ The architectural style thus developed was lished, parishes were often founded at the Gothic Revival, which reached a high point same time. Usually, no architects were avail-

^ Leighton Pullan, Religion Since the Reformation (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1924), 227. '•• Ibid., 98. ° Burchard and Bush-Brown, The Architecture of * Everard M. Upjohn, Richard Upfohn, Architect America, A Social and Cultural History (Little, and Churchman (Columbia University Press, New Brown & Company, Boston and Toronto, 1961), 97. York, 1939), Preface, vii.

40 PERRIN : RICHARD UPJOHN

.fts«j*a »/V

"Tl 'V' H

: £'J ~x ••-V; v..».

All photos by the author St. John Chrysostom Church at Delafield: (left), south elevation and bell house; (right), west elevation.

41 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

(LcjtJ, south portal of St. John Chrysostom, showing wrought-iron strap hinges and door latch, timbered roof, and pew end with typical poppy-head; (right), detail of choir stalls.

able, and church groups desirous of buUding taken to make the drawings as plain and prac­ edifices as serviceable and churchly as their tical as possible." He added that with these money could buy frequently turned to fam­ plans, specifications, and bills of material, ous architects such as Richard Upjohn to any intelligent mechanic would be able to help them with their building program. Up­ carry out the design. john's devotion to church architecture led him to work gratuitously for many small ERY closely following the plan for a parishes. As this fact came to be known, the V small church as contained in Upjohn's requests for plans increased in frequency, book is the Episcopal church of St. John prompting Upjohn to prepare standard draw­ Chrysostom at Delafield. A leader in the ings for a smafl church and related bufldings founding of the congregation was Ralston and to publish them under the title of Upjohn's Cox, who had come to Wisconsin from Phila­ Rural Architecture:' In his preface, Upjohn delphia. Construction of the church edifice says: "My purpose in publishing this book was apparently begun in 1851 and completed is simply to supply the want which is often in 1853, with consecration taking place in felt, especially in the newly settled parts of 1856. Local tradition attributes the design our country, of designs for cheap but still of the church to Ralston Cox and affirms that substantial buildings for the use of parishes, he either adapted his plans from those of schools, etc. In the examples given I have the parish church at Greenstead, England, kept in view the use of each building and or from the plans of the Church of St. James endeavored to give it the appropriate charac­ in Philadelphia." However, it is difficult arch­ ter; while at the same time care has been itecturally to connect St. John Chrysostom to either of these churches. The Greenstead

'"' Richard Upjohn, Upfohn's Rural Architecture, Designs, Working Drawings and Specifications for a Wooden Church and Other Rural Structures (Geo. " Harris H. Holt, The Story of the Church of St. P. Putnam, New York, 1852). John Chrysostom (Delafield, Wisconsin, 1956), 3.

42 PERRIN : RICHARD UPJOHN

^!

(Left), interior of the nave, looking east; (right), the rood screen and lectern.

church is a surviving, although re-built, ex­ ference between St. John Chrysostom and ample of pre-Norman stave construction,'' Upjohn's typical design is the omission of and according to avaflable descriptions of St. the tower at the Delafield church and the James in Philadelphia, consecrated in 1810, substitution of a south portal in the same it could hardly have been the board-and- location. Quite convincing, also, is the de­ batten paradigm for St. John Chrysostom, tail of the woodwork, sedilia, pulpit, and since wooden construction was outlawed in lectern, as wefl as the baptismal font—all as Philadelphia long before 1810. On the other contained in Upjohn's book. Enhancing the hand, Upjohn's Rural Architecture was not basic excellence of the design is the careful published until 1852. It may, therefore, be craftsmanship evident in this church. Choice supposed that the typical design, which even­ oak timber was used for walls and roof tually was offered as a standard by Upjohn, trusses by Alden Kelly, the carpenter, and had been used on earlier occasions in re­ paneling and doors are of exceptionally fine sponse to requests from individual congre­ quality. Handwrought hinges and latches, gations. At any rate the resemblance of St. said to have been forged by the local black­ John Chrysostom church to the design con­ smith, Jacob Luther, attest to the skill and tained in Upjohn's book is too pronounced good taste of this man. The outside of the to be coincidence. The size and proportion church is covered with vertical, wood planks of the nave, as well as chancel and sanctuary, 12 inches wide and covered with two by three- are almost exactly the same as shown in the inch battens. book. Even the location of the pulpit, organ, Except for a new vestibule at the west choir stafls, and bishop's chair coincide. The portal and the introduction of central heat­ triple lancet windows in the east wall of the ing, St. John Chrysostom church stands exact­ chancel correspond exactly. The main dif- ly as it was built over one hundred years ago. Architecturally and historically it is an im­ portant landmark, attesting the faith of its ^' Josef Strzygowski, Early Church Art in Northern Europe (Harper and Brothers, New York and Lon­ founders and the skill of its architect and don, 1928), 116, 118. builders.

43 Proceedings of the One Hundred and Fifteenth T^nnual Business Meeting of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

1960-1961

Director's Report

aware of and interested in the Society. Al­ respected New England historian once though the legislative session is not yet over A warned me that a writer should shy as I write this, I believe that we have not away from the negative form. He made been successful in demonstrating to a suffi­ several suggestions about how to do this, cient number of legislators that the Society and his writings demonstrate that he heeds is a significant state institution. This is not a his own counsel. I have been considerably complaint about our budget, since the Society less successful and, in part of what follows, fared no better and no worse than most of the am going to cast caution out on the terrace state agencies. Our new and improved pro­ and proceed—for a while—on a negative grams are essential to those interests in the course. state which we serve, but there was practically No organization is without failings and the no money available for any agency's innova­ Society is not an exception. We have our tions when the budget was passed. All state share of—and look at the vocabulary that has services suffered from the pinch. developed to describe them—muffs, goofs, Our legislative failing has been in two blips, miscues, errors, strikes, fumbles, and areas. First, we have not been able to con­ boo-boos. We have misplaced letters, delayed vince legislators that they are an important answers, forgotten appointments, tangled ar­ part of our state and regional history. Senators rangements, and discombobulated a number and assemblymen alike dismiss history as of people. Just the other day, a legislator something which ended before they became came over to see me and I called him by public officials. They live in the present, another's name. These unfortunate embar­ they intimate, and history is the past. Or, rassments are part of an organization's life they say, no one will be interested in what and we can, as we do monthly, only highly we say and do. Or, everything we do is resolve to cut down on their occurrences. recorded. Well, it is easy to prove that history There are other failings which strike deeper comes right up to today. What is hard to into the heart and purpose of the organization. prove is that every speech, every discussion, I would like to explain two of them. They are every vote is a part of history, that what is all wrapped up in policies and actions which not recorded in the meager legislative jour­ affect many individuals and institutions unre­ nals and in the press could be of critical im­ lated to the Society, but they are of central portance to the future's interpretation of the importance to the Society. past, ff legislators recognized this, they This year is my first legislative year and would recognize also how essential it is to I quickly learned that this means something collect and preserve materials focusing on the economic and social as well as the political special. It means budgets, bills, committee issues of our time, and on the individuals hearings, lobbyists, and legislators. It means and organizations who are primarily involved. trying to make elected and appointed officials

44 PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961

In the second place, we have been unable to a democratic society—to know these things show legislators that telling the story of our is to know history. past is important business, important to our This is the story that the Society is trying children and to us. The key to telling this to tell. I hope that in the coming years we narrative lies in making it interesting, under­ will be able to make it known to the thousands standable, and enjoyable. This means muse­ who appreciate its validity and vitality and ums, historic sites, books, magazines, radio, who will want to support the Society by mem­ and television, news releases and feature bership and by gift. stories at the state and local level. While it is difficult to demonstrate the con­ MONG other things, "knowing history" nection between a Little Leaguer aged twelve A sharpens your perspective, and my own and his baseball-loving parents, and a Wis­ perspective would atrophy if I did not com­ consin pioneer farmer or a skilled Wisconsin ment upon some of the felicitous accomplish­ brewer, the relationship exists and stands as ments of the Society during the past year. a challenge to the Society, affiliated local More than that, since the Society has a record societies, and other institutions to dramatize. of solid achievements, to omit mention of Without the farmer, the brewer, and their some of the more striking successes would be counterparts in politics and economic life, rank distortion, since this has been a year without their interest in a stable society, there for felicitations, too. would be no Little League, no free time for The moderately excised reports from divi­ baseball and, perhaps, no Wisconsin as we sion heads which follow this introduction know and appreciate it. A people without a provide a more detailed study of our routine grasp of their own roots drift without purpose and dramatic progress. Because some ele­ and fail to associate themselves with the very ments of this progress relate more widely to life of their community and country. the whole Society and its responsibility to the The second failing which has scarred the state, I want to mention a few. Chief among year revolves around philanthropic support. these was the gift of the Lilly Endowment of Happily, we are neither broke nor desperate. Indianapolis of $45,000 to support an intensi­ The financial report and the list of donors fication of our publishing program with par­ which follow this introductory show that we ticular regard to the Midwest between the have received—with gratitude—considerable Civil War and the first World War. With help from many people, business firms, and these funds, stretched over a three-year period, foundations. But financial statistics do not we will be able to grant modest work fellow­ picture unrealized possibilities and percolating ships to authors and to underwrite a part of ideas. We have the ideas and the plans. We the publication costs. This recognition of need the money. the Society (along with the University, This is not so much a case of hard-hearted which shared in the presentation of the re­ philanthropy as a case of our own inability to quest) by an outstanding foundation repre­ date to explain adequately the overriding im­ sents the first time that an historical agency portance of historical work. We have not been has been so honored. clearly convincing; we have not proved be­ The Society has also benefited during the yond a shadow of reasonable doubt that our year from the generosity of a former staff programs in history are a central element in member who served from 1897 to 1944. By the process which makes and keeps this state bequest. Miss Mary Stuart Foster left the and this country vigorous. Society an endowed fund of $114,113.56, the To be vital and alert citizens, the Little income from which will be used to acquire Leaguer and his parents need many things. For materials of a genealogical nature. During an understanding of national, international, her lifetime, Miss Foster was widely known and local problems, they need an education; as an authority in the field of genealogy and for a steady income, they need a prospering as a reference librarian of distinction. Her economy; for health, medical care and advice. generosity will enable the Society in perpetuity For relaxation, they need facilities commen­ to carry on the work she loved. surate with their interests. But to know why In another sense, the Society has benefited national and international problems are their from loss. The American History Research problems, to know how an economy prospers, Center, Inc., was established here in 1956 to why good health is the rule and not the ex­ stimulate professional study in American his­ ception here, and why they have time to tory. The Center was unable to achieve the relax—in short, to know how they fit into stability which it required and in 1959 it be-

45 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961 came quiescent. Brown University, long an more effectively. While it is too early to institution of excellence for the study of measure the impact of this office, we have American history, became interested in the heard telltale rumors that this is a step in Center and during the past year purchased the the right direction. assets and the name of the Center. The Society The Society has a special responsibility to will no longer use the name "American His­ the scholar. In a real sense, our services begin tory Research Center," but we will continue with the scholar, since he searches out the our expanding interest in research in Ameri­ basic material from which we fashion our can history through existing divisions and services to our other publics. Our obligation departments. to the scholar has been and remains central. More than half of the professional staff of the UR services to the general public begin Society are regularly engaged in this service O with those activities which are open to while the other half serves the scholar inter­ all. Our historic sites have managed to hold mittently. Many staff members are themselves their own financially during the year, but involved in professional research and writing. some statistics which have just been released Benton H. Wilcox, the Librarian, has pre­ over a ten-year period ending in 1960 show pared a perceptive report which is reproduced that our expenses in this area (more than in part among the reports which follow. Our matched by income) increased over fiftyfold, manuscripts library has been burdened by a and between 1959 and the present have more large quantity of collections which are rich than doubled. At the Stonefield Farm and in value but rotund in volume. Processing and Craft Museum, we have made a major break­ cataloging these include weeding out those through in the Village with the completion of documents not worthy of preservation. While the carpenter's shop, the general store, and this saves some precious space, it takes up the butcher's shop, with the print shop and equally precious time. The amount of work the bank in process, and a bridge and a road which both libraries, including the McCormick for the village definitely on the planning Collection, have been able to accomplish this boards. This little 1890's Viflage has the year with limited staff and space is remark­ potential to become one of the major attrac­ able. tions of the Midwest, and the whole state will At the other end of collecting and catalog­ have reason to be grateful to many generous ing the raw material of research is pub­ donors who have given money, material, and lication. O. L. Burnette, Jr., the Book Editor, time to help us push it along this year. reports that we have published a record num­ The other sites and our Madison museum ber of books this year, including two reprints, are mentioned elsewhere and I will not stop and five books published jointly with the to do them justice here, except to say that Department of History in a new venture their attractiveness is increasing and that known as "Logmark Editions." This effort each of them has plans for expanding its is fully described in his report, but I should historical uniqueness and its services to emphasize that this is a research and publish­ visitors. I want to stress the excellent work ing innovation and reflects credit both on the which the Supervisor of Historic Sites and Society and the Department. The editor of Markers has done during the past year and the Wisconsin Magazine of History, William earlier. Raymond S. Sivesind has caught the C. Haygood, needs no introduction to those spirit of historic restoration as well as any of you who read this. You will recognize at person in the country, and his enthusiasm is once the new format of the Magazine which tempered only by the proper safeguards of carries out its balanced emphasis of scholarly authenticity, financial security, and common and popular articles. This emphasis is slowly sense. We in Wisconsin are fortunate to have being expanded to include material of regional a man of his skill and industry. significance and material prepared by Wis­ The general public participates as more consin and Wisconsin-trained historians. Two than a viewer of historical things. Through recent articles in the Magazine received almost 100 local historical societies in the national prominence and I strongly suspect state, thousands of men and women are active­ that this will recur with increasing frequency ly involved in things historical. Our new in the year to come. Office of Local History, under the supervision This year we began peeking into a new of Wifliam J. Schereck, is attempting to work area of scholarly activity. Our effort grew out a series of programs designed to assist out of the University's recently-awakened in­ these organizations and their members to work terest in urban studies which, with the help

46 PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961

of a generous five-year grant from the Ford have worked as alert and interested individ­ Foundation, burgeoned into a full-scale pro­ uals, co-operating with but not coercing, com­ ject. The University quickly saw the advan­ plementing but not contradicting each other. tage of having an urban historian go to work Our problems of space have increased in spite on a bibliography of published works and on of our diligent—sometimes backbreaking— an examination of existing Wisconsin sources efforts to shove boxes and crates around to in the field of urban history. Dr. Charles N. squeeze out a few more cubic inches. The Glaab received a joint appointment from the Board of Curators has manifested responsible University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the leadership, continuing a tradition of more Society to undertake this responsibility, along than a century. The retiring president, Robert with a reduced teaching load. Dr. Glaab B. L. Murphy, was a source of strength and serves the Society as the Director of our inspiration to me personally and to the Society Urban History Section, and the results of his as a whole during his tenure of office. And studies will not only serve as guidelines for the list would continue on beyond the back urban investigators from the social sciences, cover of this Magazine. but wifl also help the Society properly to focus its collecting and research energies in In this year of failings and felicitations, the urban history field. I have never failed to be deeply proud of the Society, nor fafled to felicitate myself on my good fortune to be its Director. T have omitted much from this introductory. Respectfully submitted, A The staff deserves more than a team pat LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR. on the back since, with few exceptions, they Director

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'«* *•

The Staff, 1960-1961.

47 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN. 1961

aids to the use of the collections; servicing collections, both in person and by correspond­ ence; writing, conferring, and lecturing on Divisional Reports research opportunities at the Society; carry­ ing on independent research and writing, particularly that connected with the history of Wisconsin and the special scholarly in­ terests of each individual; and participating Urban History Section. As part of the in regional and national professional enter­ Wisconsin Urban Program—a five-year pro­ prises. ject supported by the Ford Foundation to As the following reports show, every staff investigate problems in urban development member in the Division is involved in these in Wisconsin—this new section of the Society functions, some emphasizing one aspect more was established in the fall of 1960 under the than others, and all varying their activities direction of Charles N. Glaab who holds a with the changing demands made upon them. joint appointment as Associate Professor of All records mentioned in these reports, on History at the University of Wisconsin- being processed and cataloged, will be publicly Milwaukee. The Section is designed to fur­ acknowledged in the Accessions Section of nish materials and assistance to University the Magazine. investigators engaged in research projects that are a part of the Urban Program and to Mass Communications History Center. develop the facilities of the Society for pur­ During the past year University co-operation poses of research in urban history. In addi­ has enabled the Mass Communications History tion, the director of the Section is at work Center to make considerable progress in ob­ on the preparation of a bibliography of urban taining new collections and in processing history and is conducting other research re­ those already received. Professor Robert lating to the history of American cities. Llethmon of the Speech Department was re­ Early in 1962 the Section will assume pub­ leased from some of his teaching duties in lication of the Urban History Newsletter, the order to concentrate on building the Center's only regular publication in this field of Amer­ theatre and motion picture collections and to ican history. During the course of the past do spade work in the initiation of a Wisconsin year, an extensive investigation and analysis Center for Theatre Research. Two graduate of the Society's materials in this area have students from the same department were been conducted, and reports have been pre­ assigned to the Center for the purpose of pared recommending policies to be pursued organizing the collection of NBC recordings in the future in order to foster research into and scripts. In addition, a University grant this relatively new but increasingly significant enabled the Center to retain Louis Lochner aspect of national history. as its field representative in the New York- Washington area from October, 1960, to June, 1961. Additional financial support came from Frederic March who helped defray the ex­ pense of the revision and printing of a new Center brochure, and from H. V. Kaltenborn Research Division. This Division, which who underwrote the cost of compiling and includes the Mass Communications History printing a booklet describing the Kaltenborn Center, the McCormick Collection, and the Collection. This booklet is being nationally Manuscripts Library, is concerned with all distributed. aspects of research in American history and In mid-October the Center and the Gallery allied fields, with emphasis on the collection Committee of the Memorial Union co- and use of unpublished records. The work sponsored an exhibit of drawings by the well- of the Division includes the exploration of known caricaturist, Al Hirschfeld, who has new areas of research; the search for records promised original drawings and papers to the pertaining to newly developed as well as well Center. Accessions have included important established areas; the evaluation and screen­ collections in the fields of advertising and ing of records; processing—cleaning, organiz­ public relations as well as additions to collec­ ing, boxing, shelving—records; preparing tions in the general field of mass communi­ catalog cards, inventories, and other finding cation.

48 PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961

McCormick Collection. For the first and for thirty-three models and machines on time since the McCormick Collection was display in the Farm and Crafts Museum at acquired by the Society in 1951 there is an Cassville were assembled and legends were inventory of its records, made by the State written. In connection with the Museum's Archivist with the assistance of the Collec­ farm exhibit, about fifty fourth and fifth- tion's Librarian. Field trips made during the grade pupils of the Glendale School were, at year by the Librarian have produced impor­ the request of their teachers, shown original tant new accessions. Two visits to the records in the McCormick Collection. McCormick Works of International Harvester In the course of the academic year, a total Company in Chicago resulted in the acquisi­ of 489 persons worked in the Collection. tion of 410 factory and payroll ledgers. These Photostats were furnished four book pub­ records, weighing 12 tons, were taken from lishers and several others. a building which burned shortly thereafter. A trip to Milwaukee yielded a valuable tape Manuscripts Library. In the course of recording by Miss Vesta Edwards covering the year the Manuscripts Library has received Industrial Welfare and policy, and also led 286 collections of items for examination, to negotiations for the securing of the records copying, or permanent accessioning. Of this of the Milwaukee Harvester Company. A half- number, 35 were received for inclusion in the day visit to the old Sherman Booth-Corss Mass Communications History Center. Several House in Burnett Corners resulted in the large or nationally important manuscript col­ acquisition of a number of Civil War items. lections have been acquired on microfilm, During the year additional papers of Mrs. among them the papers of Chester A. Arthur, Nettie Fowler McCormick, containing por­ Guy Carleton, Grover Cleveland, Andrew traits, photographs, and keepsakes, were opened and accessioned. Work continued on Johnson, Henry Knox, James Monroe, the Harold McCormick Papers. Letters and Franklin Pierce, and John Tyler. Substantial reports from Mrs. Emmons Blaine to John additions are also being made to our collec­ Dewey, President Harper, and others were tion of microfilmed records of the U.S. De­ searched and photostated in connection with partment of State. One hundred and forty- a study being made of the origins of the Uni­ nine manuscript collections, 22 tape record­ versity of Chicago Laboratory School. Letters ings totaling 57 reels, and 69 microfilm col­ to Mrs. Blaine from Jane Addams, together lections totaling 469 reels have been cata­ with documents, were assembled for a dis­ loged. In bulk these cataloged items, which play accompanying a talk and to illustrate include an estimated 386,000 pieces as well as two published articles. Information and pic­ 514 volumes, swell the estimated size of our tures were supplied for an extensive article processed manuscript collections to 3,385,000 on the history of harvesting machinery which unbound pieces and 7,491 volumes. appeared in The Farm, Cincinnati, Ohio. Data The growth of the collection as reflected in describing the models in the Museum's Farm terms of size and use over a three-year period Machinery exhibit, the State Fair exhibit, is given in the following tables:

Total Manuscript Collections—Processed 1958-59 1959-60 1960-61 Unbound pieces 2,678,000 2,998,500 3,385,000 7,491 Volumes 6,782 6,977 Patronage: Annual Registration by Locality 331 Wisconsin 271 277 109 Other States 63 128 5 Foreign 4 5 445 Total 338 410 Patronage: Daily Use Manuscripts 1,707 1,854 2,096 Maps 296 295 299 Correspondence 400 409 427

49 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

Library. Growth of use of the Library pended too much on the Commons Laboratory collections has continued its steady rise of the University's Economics Department for through the current year, as shown on the union proceedings and pamphlets with the summary statistical tables shown below. The result that there are numerous lacks in our number of persons served increased 9V2 per files. Still another area is that of Ph.D. cent over the previous year and has increased theses on microfilm. At present most theses by 50 per cent since the year 1956-1957. are made available in this form through Uni­ The number of books, pamphlets, and reels of versity Microfilms. We have been following microfilm circulated showed a 12 per cent the policy that we will purchase any of these increase for the year, and there has been a if requested by any researcher, but that we growth of 42 per cent in the five years since do not deliberately go out after them, as with 1956-1957. The total of persons served for published monographs. This policy has been the year was 62,322; and the volumes circu­ based upon several considerations. First, lated, 56,215. there is a strong likelihood that many of these Perhaps the most significant development will be published within a few years; secondly, in recent years, affecting our collecting, is the they will not become "out-of-print" as do growth of local historical society publishing books, so can be purchased at any later time; programs. There have always been a few and thirdly, it does require time and funds county historical societies in eastern states to cultivate the area. It may be that we should which were sufficiently strong to publish reconsider this policy and broaden our col­ annual or even quarterly journals, but the lecting of theses on film. number is now proliferating. Since it is As has been pointed out in previous reports, necessary to take out memberships to receive the area in which funds are most needed for these, our periodical costs are rising and will expanding our collections is that of news­ continue to rise if the "local history move­ papers and periodicals on microfilm. While ment" continues to thrive. our newspaper collection is one of the best There are other areas of our collecting in the nation, there are gaps, particularly in which are in particular need of study and nineteenth-century newspapers, where the col­ review directed towards strengthening our lection could be strengthened. The desired holdings. Church journals, proceedings, etc., and/or desirable papers have been or shortly while adequate for most research demands, will be available in microfilm form. Our are limited largely to a few major church present budget permits us to expand but bodies and probably should be expanded. slowly in this area. While we have built our lines to the point that our labor union journals and newspapers cover the field like a blanket, we have de­

Acquisitions 1956-57 1957-58 1958-59 1959-60 1960-61 Bound volumes "3,873 4,633 3,862 4,381 4,354 Pamphlets 3,458 2,972 3,144 2,900 3,503 Reels of microfilm 1,987 1,607 1,675 1,505 1,565 Microprint and microcards 8,466 6,092 13,075 13,984 9,147 Persons Served Stack and carrel admissions 20,767 23,714 26,583 27,804 31,330 Reading room service 10,998 10,598 11,615 13,507 14,545 Borrowed for home use 8,566 10,365 12,836 14,683 15,108 Correspondence 975 1,188 1,159 1,180 1,339 Total 41,306 45,865 53,076 57,174 62,322 Circulation Statistics—Books and Reels of Microfilm Reading room use 24,108 20,702 20,617 25,756 28,636 Home use 15,345 18,136 20,922 24,125 27,579 Total 39,453 38,838 41,539 49,881 56,215

50 PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961

Historymobile. In its eighth annual tour society, are now given at the Annual Institute of the state the Historymobile is currently for Local History in October. Awards of displaying an exhibit entitled "Indians of the Merit are given to individuals for long and Woodlands and Plains, 1825-1875," featuring meritorious service in local history activities. anthropological materials drawn from the The Reuben Gold Thwaites Trophy, a gold Museum's extensive collections. As in past cup traveling trophy, is awarded to the affili­ years, individuals and organizations have ated historical society that has conducted the contributed materially to the success of the most outstanding program of activities during exhibit, among the latter being the A & P the preceding year. Company and the American Automobile Asso­ Other activities of the Office of Local His­ ciation. Because the Society's mobile museum tory include editing Exchange, the quarterly begins its tours each April and does not newsletter for local historical societies and return to Madison until November, the figures museums, and co-operating with the State cited below are for the 1960 exhibit, "Water­ Fair agency in the recognition of centennial way to Wisconsin; the St. Lawrence Seaway." observances. The supervisor of the Office of Local History is William J. Schereck, Sr., Historymobile Statistics who has been in the Society's Field Services program since 1954. Miles traveled 5,512 Towns visited 175 Locations exhibited 190 Attendance: Aduhs 59,575 Children 106,014 Total 165,589 Public Information. The Office of Pub­ lic Information, formerly known as the Public Contacts Section, continued to carry on its responsibilities of keeping Board, Staff, mem­ bers, and the general public informed on all phases of Society activity. Office of Local History. The Office of During the year, Boardom, the monthly Local History, initiated in July, 1960, repre­ newsletter for staff and the Board of Curators, sents a division of responsibilities within the was published regularly, as was Wisconsin Field Services between its collecting and local Then and Now, which combines news of history affairs activities. Society activities with interesting stories from The primary responsibility of the Office of Wisconsin history. A steady stream of news Local History is to provide technical services releases emanated from the office, directed to and information to the seventy or more coun­ daily and weekly newspapers, radio and tele­ ty and local historical societies affiliated with vision stations, travel and editorial desks of the State Historical Society. Service ranges the larger newspapers throughout the nation from the dispatch of letters in response to and to special publications such as house uncomplicated questions, to extended field organs, literary, and educational publications. trips during which new societies may be or­ Each Society activity of interest to the gen­ ganized or inactive societies reorganized. The eral public was given individual attention and Office provides liaison between local societies a well-rounded public information program and the various departments of the state so­ was developed for its promotion. A highly ciety. In its first year the Office of Local successful sites promotion program was car­ History has implemented direct assistance to ried on in co-operation with the State Con­ six local museums, aided in the introduction servation Department under the heading of the new Annual Local Junior Historian "Heritage Tours." Award Program to ten societies, and guided The 1961 edition of the Wisconsin Calendar, the organization of four new societies. edited by the Office of Public Information, The Office of Local History assists the sold 103,831 copies, bringing in a profit of state society Awards Committee in gathering $20,026, which was earmarked for the So­ data for Annual, Local History, and American ciety's book publication program. The 1962 Association for State and Local History calendar was designed and published and a awards. Local History awards, formerly pre­ sales program developed to put greater empha­ sented at the June annual meeting of the state sis on imprint sales.

51 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

School Services. The Office of School With 18,773 subscriptions in 1,044 chapters, Services is as active as ever, yet the work can plus 1,646 single subscriptions to Badger His­ scarcely be classified as new or different. tory along with 2,903 users of The Thirtieth The publications Badger History, Wisconsin Star, it is safe to say that this was a good year. Teacher Newsletter, and The Thirtieth Star However, the experience of the staff in school were sent to schools regularly each month. services has been that as school districts in­ Talks were given to faculties of city and coun­ crease in size the use of Badger History de­ ty school systems, to Wisconsin history classes clines. To overcome the decrease the staff at Eau Claire, Whitewater, University of will increase the promotion through mailings, Wisconsin, and Marquette University. Scouts, personal calls on teachers and administrators, scout leaders, women's clubs, businessmen's and by working closely with the Association organizations, county historical societies, and for Supervision and Curriculum Development. religious groups have listened to the School Services staff. Teachers conventions were attended and auditorium programs were pre­ sented. Doris H. Platt, Associate Supervisor in the Office of School Services, presented "Born Museum. A broad frontal attack on the on the Prairies" every other Saturday after­ many problems facing the Museum was made noon on WISC-TV, Channel 3. She also did in the spring of 1960. The accessioning pro­ a radio program for WHA again this year. gram was placed on a reasonable and work­ Because so much of Miss Piatt's time was used able basis; the education program was effi­ in preparing for the shows, Donald Anderson ciently organized and expanded to include had to assume greater responsibility in editing Saturday morning events; the painting collec­ Badger History. Howard Kanetzke wrote tion was given considerable care and atten­ articles for Badger History and The Thirtieth tion; highway salvage archeology was Star. In addition to this work, he sought out launched and rapidly expanded to become materials for the television show and saved the most important single activity of the the entire staff a great deal of time and dupli­ Museum; and aid to local museums through­ cation by having all letters requesting informa­ out the state became a reality. At the same tion channeled through him. time the exhibit work of the Museum con­ The 1961 regional convention of junior tinued at a growing pace. historians met in Spooner, Wilmot, Menasha, Of major importance to the Museum's La Crosse, Minocqua, and Edgerton. The future was the reorganization of the accession­ Governor's State Award Day was held in ing and cataloging procedures under the Madison on May 20. About 3,000 chfldren direction of John W. Winn, Curator of Col­ participated in the meetings. lections. As a result, gifts are now acknowl­ There were, however, new developments in edged immediately and all current cataloging the program. An institute for high school and accessioning has been completed. teachers of history was held in the Sellery Under the direction of Miss Joan Morgan, Room of the State Historical Society on Octo­ Curator of Education, a Saturday morning ber 14 and 15. Fifty teachers from around program was instituted, using films, artifacts, the state attended the meeting. and talks by curators. Despite the handicaps Thurman Fox, Supervisor of the Office of of insufficient staff or budget, the program School Services, has been named to a curricu­ was successful in its first year. The spring lum committee by the State Department of rush of tours was well organized and the Public Instruction. The committee is to largest group in recent years was handled. recommend a program of study for the social On several days more than 900 children science curriculum. In addition to the efforts thronged the first and fourth-floor exhibits. of the State Department of Public Instruction During the year the painting collections to improve social studies, the State Historical were completely reorganized under the direc­ Society of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Council tion of Paul Vanderbilt, Curator of Icono­ for the Social Studies, and the University of graphy. The items most appropriate to the Wisconsin are preparing a proposal to be Museum's program were segregated and the submitted to a foundation requesting financial remainder were organized into a more usable support. The co-operating agencies plan to system. A restorer brought in a crew of three develop a social studies program and teaching men who spent a week cleaning and repairing aids for grades kindergarten through twelfth. thirty-five oil paintings in the collection.

52 PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961

The Highway Salvage excavation program ties. Although such aid represents a consider­ was organized in the summer of 1960, and able investment in the Society's time and initial reports from Dr. Joan Freeman, Cura­ funds, it also represents an important facet tor of Anthropology, indicate that excavations of our work, i.e., furthering the interest of made along the Wisconsin River in that year history on the local level. will provide new information on Wisconsin's The exhibit program continues to develop, early inhabitants. Material from both Hope- and progress was made on the renovation of wellian and Effigy Mound cultures was dis­ the fourth-floor galleries. New exhibits in­ covered. This year additional Hopewellian stalled on the fourth floor during the year material was excavated from two sites near were "Meet Mr. Lincoln," "Wisconsin in the the Wisconsin River, and preliminary reports Civil War," and "Sickle to Combine." The from excavations near the Rock River promise changing exhibit continued on the first floor important additions to our knowledge of Wis­ with "Women A Century Ago" in October consin's pre-history. In addition to the exca­ and "The Wisconsin Legislature, 1836-1961," vation of six sites, 240 miles of highway right- in March. of-way were surveyed in search of further The Museum has also produced exhibits for sites. The National Park Service has com­ the historic sites. Two exhibits were prepared missioned the Society to survey proposed dam for the Circus World Museum, "Mueller sites in Wisconsin for possible salvage work Brothers, Wagon Builders," and "The Adver­ that should be completed before the dams are tising Car." The Museum of Medical Progress begun. Testing for sites was done in the Kick- exhibits on eighteenth and nineteenth-century apoo Reservoir area last summer and more medicine were completed in September and is scheduled for July, 1961. a twentieth-century exhibit in May. A huge An encouraging development of the year display entitled "The Dairy Museum" was was the beginning of extensive aid to local created for the State Fair in September, and museums throughout the state. Waukesha the opening exhibit for the National Railroad County Historical Society, Oconto Historical Museum was completed in June. More than Society, and the Watertown Historical Society half of the exhibit work done by the Museum all received assistance in their museum activi­ during the year was shown in localities outside of Madison.

Museum Attendance, 1960-1961 Sunday Group Individual Film Total Groups Attendance Visitors Attendance Attendance 473 19,979 19,515 2,281 41,775

Field Services. In 104 field trips made Walter Goodland's Papers; historical materi­ during the year. Field Services staff members als relating to George Esterly, pioneer agricul­ visited nearly every county in the state, some tural inventor and manufacturer; records of of them several times. In the course of these Hans Crocker, early Wisconsin railroad pro­ trips ten audiences were addressed. moter; and the Asher Hobson Papers con­ Field Service activities bear witness to the cerning the agricultural co-operative move­ lively interest of Wisconsinites in their state's ment. Statewide organizations which de­ history. Of the more than 400 prospective posited records with the Society for preserva­ donors called on, 301 responded with dona­ tion included Wisconsin's important Cran­ tions to the Society's collections. Of these berry Sales Company and four labor unions, donations, 260 were manuscript accessions; among them the State AFL-CIO. 187 were accessions to the museum sites and Wisconsin newspapers covering 150 years the iconography collections; and 89 were were borrowed from editors and other de­ donations to the Library and the Archives. positories for microfilming by the Library, Manuscript collections garnered from attics and other papers covering nearly 100 years and basements included additions to Governor were returned to their owners. Field Ser-

53 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961 vices also acquired and deposited with the office, drugstore, carpenter shop, cooperage, Library the voluminous Edwin Witte collec­ wagonmaker's shop, barbershop, and millinery tion of books and pamphlets on Social Security shop were completed. The Highway Com­ and labor relations. mission approved the installation of a covered A balmy winter enabled the Field staff to bridge to connect the village and farm museum use the Historymobile truck to move bulky portions. collections to museums and historic sites— The Historic Sites Committee's recom­ interior furnishings of an 1890 bank to Stone­ mendations concerning three-dimensional his­ field, a turn-of-the-century physician's office torical exhibits along the Interstate Highway to the Museum of Medical Progress. Trade System were approved by the Board. The tools for the proposed photographer's shop first such exhibit, to be installed in the Rest were also added to Stonefield. Area near Menomonie, will depict a Northern State interest in Civil War history brought Wisconsin logging scene. increased Field Service activity in the appro­ Official markers for the foflowing historic priate disposal of War-connected collections. sites were approved: Van Brunt Grain Drill, Co-operating with the state Civil War Cen­ Horicon; Camp Randall, Madison; Emancipa­ tennial Commission, the Society has become tion Ferry, Portage; Pinery Road, Burnett the final repository for research collections County; Luther College, Halfway Creek, and has also distributed hundreds of copies La Crosse County; Milton House, Milton; of a research collection checklist to donors First Dairy Co-op in Wisconsin, Lake Mills; and prospective donors. Among the signifi- and Frank Lloyd Wright, Spring Green. ,cant collections received thereby are the papers and diaries of Dr. William H. Brisbane, prominent Wisconsin antislavery crusader. Attendance al Historic Sites, 1959—60 Recording the personal histories of signifi­ 1959 1960 cant Wisconsin personalities on tape continues Villa Louis 36,124 38,756 to be a fruitful activity of Field Services. Last Wade House 29,330 31,475 Stonefield 5,339 8,378 year thirty-five hours of reminiscences de­ Medical Museum* 3,930 voted to twentieth-century conservation his­ * Opened September 1, I960. tory were recorded in a natural history survey carried on in co-operation with the Wisconsin Conservation Department.

Book Publications. During the past year the Society's book publication program has Historic Sites and Markers. The Society's obviously accelerated in both scope and vol­ newest site, the Museum of Medical Progress, ume, the fruit of planning over the past opened September 1, 1960, in Prairie du several years towards that end, and it stands Chien. At the annual meeting the Glynn poised to embark upon a new program of Property, also in Prairie du Chien, was pre­ many different facets. The program is now sented to the Society by the Living History without equal among the historical agencies Committee. Because of insufficient patronage, of the nation; its expanding facilities and the Four Winds Coffee House at Greenbush resources assures it a commanding leadership did not open in 1961. After Mrs. Martin for the foreseeable future. Fladoes, its donor, gave her consent, the The successful launching of "Logmark Board approved the sale of the Coffee House, Editions," the co-operative scholarly, short- the proceeds from which will go to the Wade run, low-cost publication venture by the So­ House Fund. In February negotiations began ciety and Department of History of the Uni­ with representatives of the Wesley Jung versity of Wisconsin, has added immeasurably Foundation for the establishment of a Jung to the Society's imprint as a significant factor Carriage Museum in Old Wade House State in historical publishing. While substantive Park and for the transfer thereto of the Jung reviews of the individual titles have only Carriage Collection of more than one hundred begun to appear in the scholarly journals, horsedrawn vehicles. the project has received enthusiastic acclaim At Stonefield construction continued on the from a number of scholarly and university Farm and Craft Museum, especially on the presses as a fruitful solution to the economic 1890 Village in which the general store, post problem of publishing severely short-run

54 PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961 titles. The reception awarded this pioneer Wisconsin Reader (juvenile), edited by project has encouraged the co-operating pub­ Doris H. Platt. lishers to continue and expand the undertaking Charles Richard Van Hise, Scientist Pro­ in the second year. gressive, by Maurice M. Vance. By all odds, the most exciting single devel­ A Soviet View of the American Past, opment profoundly affecting the Society's translated and edited by Yanko, Kersten, future as a scholarly publisher was the grant Burnette, Haygood, et al. (Second print­ in May of $45,000 from Lilly Endowment, ing-) Inc., to the Wisconsin History Foundation for It Happened Here (juvenile), by Hender­ a three-year joint project in research and son, Speerschneider, and Ferslev. (New publication in Midwestern history from the printing of fourth edition.) Civil War to World War I. The project, to Trimmers, Trucftlers & Temporizers: be administered jointly by the University and Notes of Murat Halstead from the Political the Society, will expend about $15,000 in Conventions of 1856, edited by Wifliam B. grants-in-aid to post-doctoral fellows to cover Hesseltine and Rex G. Fisher. research expenses. The remaining $30,000 Legal Foundations of American Philan­ will constitute a capital fund for the Society thropy, 1776-1844, by Howard S. Miller. to publish the resulting studies (or those of Wisconsin Witness to Frederick Jaclcson others) illustrating the development of the Turner: A Collection of Essays on the His­ Midwest in the stated period. This is the first torian and tfie Thesis, edited by 0. L. such grant for research and publication to be Burnette, Jr. made to any comparable institution, and re­ Fredericfi the Great and Samuel von flects the special competence of the University Cocceji, by Herman Weill (Logmark). and the Society effectively to administer such Wisconsin Carpetbaggers in Dixie, by a program. The potential contribution of the David H. Overy, Jr. (Logmark). program to a better understanding of America Prophet of Prohibition: Neal Dow and and its heartland is enormous, and the result­ ing increased stature of the Society in aca­ His Crusade, by Frank L. Byrne (Log- demic circles will be correspondingly great. mark) . A Pygmy Monopolist: The Life and During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1961, Doings of R. D. Hume, edited by Gordon the following twelve titles were published B. Dodds (Logmark). under the Society's imprint. Litus Saxonicum: The British Saxon Shore in Scholarship and History, by Donald A. White (Logmark).

,,* .

A SuYiH Vt«w jf the

•!

«rl

M Books published by the Society during the year.

55 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

Archives. The work of the Archives Divi­ case files of the additional Circuit Court for sion was handicapped for several months of Michigan Territory (1823-1836) and of the the past year by the sudden death in August, Iowa County District Territorial Court (1836- 1960, of State Archivist Howard A. Merritt, 1848). The court records contain information Jr. Assistant Archivist Lawrence H. Larsen on social and economic conditions during the was the only full-time archivist on duty from early settlement of the lead mining region that time until the appointment of the present around Mineral Point and Prairie du Chien. State Archivist on November 1, 1960. Other early documents were found, including During the year the Committee on Public an inquest before a justice of the peace in Records met four times. It scheduled for 1809, which is apparently the oldest document transfer to the archives 39 series of records, in the Archives Division. with total estimated annual accumulations of To aid researchers, we have prepared a 167 cubic feet. In addition, the Committee calendar for the earliest Iowa County records. authorized transfer to Archives of 570 cubic We have also completed an index of the names feet on specific authorizations. Further study of individuals whose letters are contained in led to the conclusion that 300 cubic feet of the series on the Organization and Administra­ this total had little or no research value, and tion of the Army, 1861-1865. they were destroyed in accordance with au­ The table below indicates the purposes for thority granted by the Committee. which the archival records were used during Much of the past year was spent cataloging, the year: boxing, labeling, and shelving a backlog of records which had accumulated in the Ar­ Reference Requests by Types, 1960—1961 chives Division for a period of many months previous. We can now state that we are on Administrative 215 a current basis in processing records. During Historical or other scholarly research 84 the past year 691 series (of 2,923 contained Genealogy and in the Archives) were cataloged, labeled, and family history 39 shelved. Most of the records processed were Legal research 18 local records, the most interesting and signifi­ Miscellaneous 10 cant being those from Iowa County which Total 366 date prior to 1848. Included are papers and

m.

Staff members watching a demonstration of a reader-printer acquired by the Manuscripts Library as an aid to researchers using microfilm records.

56 PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961

The Year In Pictures: I

(Top right) One of several hundred groups of school children who toured the Society this season, examining the replica of a log cabin in the Museum's first-floor galleries.

(Center) At Wade House a youthful descen­ dant of Wisconsin Dutch peruses a Bible saved from the Great LaJtes sailing vessel Phoenix, which san/c in 1847 with 147 Dutch immigrants aboard.

(Bottom right) Menominee Indians staging a ceremonial dance at Kesheena to inaugurate the 1961 Historymobile exhibit, "Indians of the Woodlands and Plains, 1825-1875."

(Below) Youngster examining an authentical­ ly attired manni/cin and his raccoon trophy at one of the 190 sites which the History- mobile visited this season. (Photographs by Justin Schmiedefce)

57 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

At Prairie du Chien, June 23, 1961

• Voted that the Director be authorized to Digest of Board Action use the D. C. Everest Fund to reactivate the Society's business history project;

At Cassville, October 7, 1961 • Approved the Articles of Incorporation for the New Holstein Historical Society; • Approved two new historical markers recommended by the Historic Sites and • Voted that $2,000 be authorized from the Markers Committee: Van Brunt Grain Drill, Hollister Fund for the purpose of completing Horicon, and Emancipation Ferry, Columbia a bibliography of books published before 1800 County; in the fields of chemistry, pharmacy, and medicine in the collections of the University's • Accepted gifts, grants, and donations total­ Memorial Library; ing $5,447.23; • Accepted with appreciation the bequest of • Approved changes designed to make more the late Mary Stuart Foster, under the terms flexible the Articles of Incorporation for and conditions set forth in the will; affiliating local historical societies; • Passed a resolution commending Mrs. • Passed a resolution commending the mem­ Neita 0. Friend for her contributions, as bers of the Wisconsin State Council, Brother­ editor of Creative Wisconsin, to the cultural hood of Carpenters and Joiners, who volun­ and literary life of the state and for her teered time and labor for the reconstruction consistent encouragement of beginning writers of the carpenter shop in the Village of the in all branches of literary endeavor, including 1890's at Stonefield; the field of local history;

• Granted an honorary Life Membership and • Voted Awards of Merit in the following Certificate of Appreciation to Miss Dorothy categories: L. Park in recognition of her forty-two years Organizations: the State Medical Society of of devoted service in the Library and Business Wisconsin. Office of the Society. Newspapers: The Wisconsin Agriculturist. Historical Societies: the Albion Academy Historical Society. At Madison, January 28, 1961 Individuals: Herbert W. Rice, professor of history, Marquette University, and Harvey • Approved the development of the diorama Huston, author of '93/'41, Thunder Lalce as a means of portraying history in markers Narrow Gauge; instafled on the Interstate Highway System; • Voted that the Women's Auxiliary be in­ • Approved the Articles of Incorporation of vited to assist or take charge of financing the the Peshtigo and the Dane County historical restoration of the exterior of the Brisbois societies; House; that the Director be requested to present to the Board at its October meeting • Approved seven new markers: City of a long-range plan for the fur-trade complex Prairie du Chien; Road from St. Croix Falls of the Prairie du Chien area; and that the to Pinery, Burnett County; Camp Randall, Board endorse such a plan and invite the Madison; Luther College, La Crosse County; Auxiliary and the Living History Committee Milton House, Milton; First Dairy Co-op in to join in its realization; Wisconsin, Lake Mills; and Frank Lloyd Wright, Spring Green; • Voted that the staff make a study of the costs involved in the proposed restoration and • Approved the tentative arrangements be­ refurbishing of the Villa Louis and make tween the History Department of the Univer­ recommendations; and that, if necessary, the sity of Wisconsin and the Society for the Society request the additional funds from the publication of the State of Wisconsin "Log- Wisconsin History Foundation to carry out mark Editions." the recommendations.

58 PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961

Mrs. Raymond W. Koltes, Madison Charles Manson, Madison Frederic Sammond, Milwaukee Dr. William Stovall, Madison Minutes of the Annual Meeting There being no further nominations from HE ANNUAL business meeting was held the floor, Mr. Hatch moved and Mr. Stark at Prairie du Chien, June 24, 1961. Presi­ T seconded that by unanimous consent the re­ dent Murphy called the meeting to order at port of the Nominating Committee be ac­ 1:30 P.M. cepted. The membership so voted and Presi­ Director Fishel, in his oral report on the dent Murphy declared the slate elected. Society's activities during the year, pointed Resolutions were offered and approved in out that a full report from the director and recognition of the services of the three retir­ the treasurer would be incorporated in the ing Curators: A. Eugene Hatch, Eugene W. Proceedings, published annually in the Murphy, and Walker Wyman, following which Autumn issue of the Magazine. Mr. Dyrud presented a brief explanation of Mr. William F. Stark, chairman of the the work of the Living History Committee of Nominating Committee, presented the follow­ Prairie du Chien. President Murphy then ing nominations for the office of Curator: introduced Dr. Murray Nelligan of the Nation­ al Park Service who presented to Mr. Murphy Election for tfie term ending in 1964 the Registered Landmark Certificate for the Second Fort Crawford and the Villa Louis. Thomas H. Barland, Eau Claire Dr. Nelligan stated that an important con­ George F. Kasten, Milwaukee sideration in the decision to cite the Villa Fred I. Olson, Milwaukee Louis was that it had been furnished with furnishings originally in the home rather To succeed themselves for a three-year term than with period pieces gathered from other ending in 1964 sources. Since there was no further business to come M. J. Dyrud, Prairie du Chien before the membership, the meeting was ad­ Fred H. Harrington, Madison journed by President Murphy at 2:30 P.M. Jim Dan Hill, Superior Respectfully submitted, E. E. Homstad, Black River Falls LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR. Mrs. Vincent W. Koch, Janesville Secretary

Members of the Board of Curators at the Prairie du Chien meeting.

59 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

PUBLIC FUNDS STATEMENT July 1, 1960 to June 30, 1961

APPROPRIATION

Statute Legislative Balance Title Number Purpose Appropriation Expenditures 6/30/61 General Administration .. 20.430-1 Salaries (Base) ($339,924.00) Salaries (Base) ( 9,300.00) 1 $363,558.62 $ 605.38 Salaries (Base) ( 14,940.00)2 .Salaries (Bonus) 73,050.46''! 73,050.46 Materials & Expense 51,180.00 Materials & Expense 1,200.00 Materials & Expense 2,872.504 Materials & Expense 1,118.40'5 56,369.69 1.21 Capital 6,630.50 6,567.57 62.93 Maintenance & 20.430-2 Maint. & Capital 10,000.00 3,100.008 12,667.71 432.29 Books & Museum 20.430-3 Capital (Collections) 37,500.00 37,495.49 4.51 Heat 20.430-4 Heat 7,683.177 7,683.17 $558,499.03 $557,392.71 $1,106,328 1 Transfer of 2 archivists from Dept. of Administration to Historical Society. 2 New Pay Plan. •'Sum sufficient appropriation (Estimate for year—$75,7,36.00). •* Amount granted by I5oard on Gov't. Operations—Unemployment Compensation, Historic Sites. 5 Amount granted by Board on Gov't. Operations—Space rental. Records Center. 8 Amount granted by Board on Gov't. Operations—3/20/61—Roof repairs. ''Sum sufficient appropriation (Estimate for year—$7,700). 8 Lapsed to State General Fund $674.07; continuing $432.25. PRIVATE FUNDS (430-41. Non-Trust) Special Projects—July 1, 1960 to June 30, 1961 Balanee Balance FUNDS 7-1-60 Income Expenditures 6-30-61 $ 3,708.87 $ 25.00 $ 1.50 $ 3,732.37 League of Women Voters Bldg. ... 32.45 695.00 526.09 201.36 4,538.00 100.00 4,638.00 (13,587.59) 50,077.99 ,53.374.52 (16,884.12) 31,749.75 78,283.71 58,930.52 51,107.94 23.50 23.50 46.31 655.00 504.01 197.30 2,094.19 71.32 2,165.51 ( 5,505.60) 72,536.93 74,783.12 ( 7,751.79) $23,099.88 $202,449.95 $188,119.76 $37,430.07 (See detailed table below.) PRIVATE FUNDS (430-41. Non-Trust) Historic Sites Funds—July 1, 1960 to June 30, 1961 Balance Balance FUNDS 7-1-60 Income Expenditures 6-30-61 $ 30.00 t $ 30.00 Circus Museum—Operations 7,001.40 690.60 6,.301.36 1,390.64 Medical Museum—Operations ... — 11,862.15 10,791.58 1,070.57 Stonefield—Capital Reserve 270.00 270.00 78.96 5,470.70 7,635.28 ( 2,085.62)

Villa Louis—Capital Reserve ... 2,275,55 2,275.55 (11,533.88) 31,215.63 27,137.40 ( 7,455.65)

Wade House—Capital Reserve 2,000.00 2,000.00 ( 5,627.63) 23,297.85 20,641.95 ( 2,971.73) ($5,505.60) $72,536.93 $74,783.12 ($7,751.79)

60 PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961

PRIVATE FUNDS (430-42. Trust Funds) Endo-wment Funds—July I, 1960 to June 30, 1961 PRINCIPAL INCOME Balance Balanee FUNDS 7-1-60 Income Expenditures 6-30-61 $ 14,000.00 1 408.88 $ 825.84 $ 12.13 1 1,222.59 374,182.83 527.62 23,803.41 17,336.43 6,994.60 18,745.00 14,939.50 7,553.37 5,256.58 17,236.29 Mary Stuart Foster Bequest* 128,554.53 316.76 153.31 163.45 119,846.34 2,426.63 7,085.65 4,741.31 4,770.97 Hollister Pliarm. Lib. Fund*'^' .. 40,544.58 17,971.98 1,286.08 30.52 19,227.54 1,200.00 872.82 71.65 .95 943.52 23,594.69 1,726.38 1,395.26 158.63 2,963.01 29,428.00 165.60 1,738.41 23.27 1,880.74 Anna R. Sheldon Mem. Fund 2,700.00 298.34 158.38 53.34 403.38 15,100.00 1,226.75 893.72 89.25 2,031.22 $767,895.97 $40,564.50 $45,128.53 $27,855.72 $57,837.31 * Securities Received (First National Bank, Madison) $125,416.14 Cash Received (First National Bank, Madison) 3,138.39 "* Received Principal credit of $1,255.55 (% net ineor for year)

PRIVATE FUNDS (430-42, Trust Funds) Special Projects—July 1, 1960 to June 30, 1961 Balance Balance FUNDS 7-1-60 Income Expenditures 6-30-61 Advancement of Education $ 5,243.27 $ (359.47) $ 3,942.18 $ 941.62 250.00 250.00 195.52 960.00 27.85 1,127.67 250.00 250.00 673.19 673.19 36.12 25.00 18.90 42.22 .45 300.00 257.60 42.85 4,891.00 4,891.00 1,000.00 1,000.00 1,000.00 1,000.00 (2,901.83) 13,376.81 13,910.91 (3,435.93) 708.32 75.00 756.88 26.44 500.00 629.52 (129.52) Anna M. Mashek Fund 1,000.00 1,000.00 458.21 450.00 75.00 833.21 51.00 50.00 1.00 1,196.52 (1,196.52) School Services Awards Fund , 75.00 75.00 26.52 273.02 298.79 .75 Stonefield Development Fund—Bank 3,140.00 3,140.00 1,950.74 264.23 2,214.97 Wis. Society for Jewish Learning .... 620.34 511.94 108.40 $15,649.37 $18,883.07 $21,804.57 $12,727.87

61 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961 The Staff*

Office of the Director

LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Director GLENN E. THOMPSON, Assistant Director BERNADETTE WILHELM, Administrative Assistant MARY C. MACKEN, Secretary and Supervisor of Typing Pool CHARLES N. GLAAB, Director, Urban History Project JOHN L. SUTER, Research Assistant

Division of Administrative Services JOHN C. JACQUES, Business IWanager Business Office Maintenance LEONARD W. BEHNKE, Comptroller ARTHUR 0. FURSETH, Supervisor LOIS I. ELSENER, Assistant to Comptroller PEARL 0. BOSTAD MONICA J. STAEDTLER, Purchasing Agent FLORENCE J. COLLETTI Clerical Section GREGORY A. GMEINDER MARY C. MCCANN, Sales Supervisor THOMAS R. MAHONEY LOIS J. BLILIE CLARENCE H. KNUDSEN RUTH E. HAYES JOSEPH PECK JAMES L. KILIAN ANTHONY W. SCHAEFFER MARY E. PALTZ MATHILDA SEVERSON NANCY RUSS^ WILLIE JO WALKER ROBERT F. SYVRUD MERLE H. WILSON Receptionists Secretaries MARY A. RUSSELL BEVERLY A. JACOBSON GERALDINE JOSHEFF DOLORES C. PROSSER

Museum Division WALTER S. DUNN, JR., Chief Curator JOHN W. WINN, Curator of Collections CHARLES H. KNOX, Curator of Exhibits PAUL VANDERBILT, Curator of Iconography JOAN E. FREEMAN, Curator of Archeology DAVID W. MCNAMARA, Curator of Research JOAN C. MORGAN, Curator of Education JOAN WESTBURY, Registrar

DONALD L. BROCKINGTON^ JAMES L. PROMENSCHENKEL^ LOLITA BROCKINGTON^ DONALD L. PROULX^ RICHARD D. DERRICKSON^ JOEL FI. SALTER'' LOUIS L. DURST JAKE TSCHUDY (Historymobile) MARY A. FULLMER^ IRENE TSCHUDY (Historymobile) CHERYLE M. HUGHES ROBERT W. WAGNER^ WILLIAM M. HURLEY^ JAMES S. WATSON EUGENE H. KLEE WILLIAM H. WILSON^ VERONICA M. YANZ^

Archives Division RICHARD A. ERNEY, State Archivist LAWRENCE H. LARSEN

62 PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961

Research Division

ALICE E. SMITH, Director

Mass Communications History Center McCormick Collection BARBARA J. KAISER, Director LUCILE O. KELLAR, Librarian JANICE L. O'CONNELL

Manuscripts Library JOSEPHINE L. HARPER, Manuscripts Librarian MARGARET R. HAFSTAD FRANCIS A. DELOUGHERY CAROL J. SMITH-^ Library Division

BENTON H. WILCOX, Librarian MARGARET GLEASON, Reference Librarian

Acquisitions Section Services Section JOHN C. COLSON, Acquisitions Librarian RUTH H. DAVIS, Services Librarian JEROME P. DANIELS VERENA M. BARLOW ETHEL M. FOSS ELLEN BURKE DWIGHT E. KELSEY JUNE E. JOHNSON BIAGINO M. MARONE Catalog Section ESTHER J. NELSON EDWIN A. TOMLINSON, Catalog Librarian HERBERT J. TEPPER ELSIE A. FANSLER RUTH H. POHLE S. JANE SCHANTZ Division of Book Publications

O. LAWRENCE BURNETTE, JR., Book Editor GRACE ARGALL, Editorial Assistant

The Magazine of History

WILLIAM C. HAYGOOD, Editor

State Relations Division

Office of Field Services Office of Sites and Markers WILLIAM K. ALDERFER, Supervisor RAYMOND J. SIVESIND, Supervisor DAVID P. THELEN* HOWARD W. KANETZKE, Assistant Supervisor'^ Office of Local History Villa Louis WILLIAM J. SCHERECK, Supervisor FLORENCE A. BITTNER, Curator GEORGE ADNEY Office of School Services Stonefield THURMAN 0. Fox, Supervisor EDWARD D. CARPENTER, Curator DORIS H. PLATT, Associate Supervisor MELVIN L. HOUGHTON DONALD N. ANDERSON, Assistant Supervisor HOPE A. LOVELAND Office of Public Information Wade House JUSTIN M. SCHMIEDEKE, Supervisor FAY S. DOOLEY, Curator JANE J. NEUHEISEL, Assistant Supervisor^ EDITH WEBB

* As of June 30, 1961. '' Exchange Co-operative Student from Antioch 'Membership secretary, resigned August, 1961; College, until September, 1961. replaced by LuAnn Derge. ' Resigned July, 1961; replaced by Kathryn J. ^ Highway Salvage Archeology Project. Schneider. ''Resigned August, 1961. " Also assigned to School Services.

63 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961 STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Director

Officers RoBKHT B. L. MURPHY, President GEORGE C. SELLERY, Honorary Vice-President WALKEK WYMAN, First Vice-President GEORGE HAMPEL, JR., Treasurer Mits. HOWARD GRF.KNE, Second Vice-President LESLIE H. FISHEL., JR., Secretary

Board of Curators Ex-Officio GAYLORD NELSON, Governor of the State EUGENE M. LAMB, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM, President of the University GEORGE E, WATSON, Superintendent of Public Instruction MRS. SILAS SPENGLER, President of the Women's Auxiliary

Term Expires 1961 M. J. DYRUD JIM DAN HILL MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERIC SAMMOND Prairie du Chien Superior Madison Milwaukee FRED H. HARRINGTON E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES MANSON DR. WILLIAM STOVALL Madison Black River Falls Madison Madison A. EUGENE HATCH MRS. VINCENT W. KOCH EUGENE W. MURPHY WALKER WYMAN Ripon Janesville La Crosse River Falls

Term Expires 1962 GEORGE BANTA, JR. HERBERT V. KOHLER WILLIAM F. STARK JOHN TORINUS Menasha Kohler Pewaukee Green Bay GEORGE HAMPEL, JR. ROBERT B. L. MURPHY STANLEY STONE .\NTHONY WISE Milwaukee Madison Milwaukee Hayward SANFORD HERZOG GERTRUDE PUELICHER MILO K. SWANTON CLARK WILKINSON Minocqua Milwaukee Madison Baraboo

Term Expires 1963 SCOTT CUTLIP MRS. ROBERT FRIEND JOHN C. GEILFUSS WILLIAM B. HESSELTINE Madison Hartland Milwaukee Madison W. NORMAN FITZGERALD EDWARD FROMM MRS. HOWARD T. GREENE JAMES RILEY Milwaukee Hamburg Genesee Depot Eau Claire J. F. FRIEDRICK ROBERT GEHRKE DR. GUNNAR GUNDERSEN CLIFFORD SWANSON Milwaukee Ripon La Crosse Stevens Point

Honorary Curators HJALMAR R. HOLAND, Ephraim SAMUEL PEDRICK, Ripon Fellows Honorary Life Members VERNON CARSTENSEN (1949) WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, Winnipeg MERLE CURTI (1949) PRESTON E. MCNALL, Madison MRS. LITTA BASCOM, Madison

The Women's Auxiliary OFFICERS MRS. SILAS SPENGLER, Stoughton, President MRS. MILLARD TUFTS, Milwaukee, Vice-President MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee, Secretary MRS. E. J. BIEVER, Kohler, Treasurer MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES, Madison, Ex-Officio

64 PROCEEDINGS : 1960-1961

Sustaining Members

I960—1961

Appleton Wire Works, Appleton First Wisconsin Trust Company, Milwaukee Riverside Paper Foundation, Appleton The Heil Company, Milwaukee Wausau Paper Mills Company, Brokaw Inland Steel, Milwaukee W. D. Hoard, Jr., Fort Atkinson International Harvester, Milwaukee Brook Hill Fund, Genesee Depot George J. Meyer Manufacturing Company, Parker Pen Company, Janesville Milwaukee Thilmany Pulp & Paper Company, Kaukauna Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee The Kohler Company, Kohler Milwaukee Gas Light Company, Milwaukee Gateway Transportation Company, La Crosse Nordberg Manufacturing Company, American Exchange Bank, Madison Milwaukee Brandenburg Foundation, Madison Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, Milwaukee The Capital Times, Madison A. George Schulz Company, Milwaukee Democrat Printing Company, Madison A. 0. Smith Corporation, Milwaukee Farmers Mutual, Madison Bergstrom Paper Company, Neenah General Telephone Company of Wisconsin, Rockwell Standard Corporation, Oshkosh Madison Western Printing & Lithographing Company, Oscar Mayer & Company, Madison Racine Red Dot Foods, Inc., Madison Elmer G. Voigt, Racine Wisconsin Power & Light Company, Madison Voight Charitable Foundation, Racine Wisconsin State Journal, Madison Rhinelander Paper Company, Rhinelander Rahr Malting Company, Manitowoc Frank G. Brotz Family Foundation, Inc., Gilbert Paper Company, Menasha Sheboygan Marathon Foundation, Menasha Bucyrus-Erie Foundation, Inc., South Menasha Wood Ware Corporation, Menasha Milwaukee Allen-Bradley Company, Milwaukee Hardware Mutual Casualty Company, Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, Stevens Point Milwaukee Nelson Muffler Corporation, Stoughton American Appraisal Company, Milwaukee General Casting Corporation, Waukesha Cutler-Hammer Foundation, Milwaukee Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Evinrude Motors, Milwaukee Company of Wisconsin, Wausau The Falk Corporation, Milwaukee West Bend Aluminum Company, West Bend First Wisconsin National Bank, Milwaukee Mrs. B. C. Ziegler, West Bend

Patrons

Mr. and Mrs. John Wilson, Ojai, California

65 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

The Year In Pictures-. II

(Left) Crowd leaving the colorful nineteenth- century sideshow at the Circus World Mu­ seum, an attraction which played to more than 40,000 people during the season.

(Center) Margaret Hafstad processing and cataloging some of the 3,385,000 manuscripts in the Society's Manuscripts Library.

(Bottom left) Hostess Pat O'Donnell escort­ ing Wisconsin assemblymen Harry Gessert, Isaac Coggs, Lawrence Johnson, and Franklin Jahnke through the "Wisconsin Legislature, 1836-^1961" exhibit.

(Below) Museum directors and curators from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and North America examining Society exhibits on one stop of a tour jointly sponsored by the Amer­ ican Association of Museums and the Depart­ ment of State.

66 teac/ers' choice

Logmark Editions: A New Historical Series Prophet of Prohibition: Neal Dow and His rum and rich man's wine. He was largely Crusade. By FRANK L. BYRNE. (The State responsible for changing the emphasis of the Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, temperance movement in Maine from moral 1961. Pp. vii, 184. Notes, bibliography, and suasion on the local level to legal coercion on index. $4.00.) a state-wide basis. His greatest achievement came with the passage of the famous "Maine What makes man a reformer? For one im­ Law" of 1851 which influenced prohibition portant group of reformers, the abolitionists legislation in other states and earned for its of the Northeast, David Donald has offered author a national and even international repu­ a provocative explanation. Donald charac­ tation. During the 1850's twelve states adopted terized the abolitionists as a "displaced elite" prohibition laws, and for a time it appeared who sought to regain the social status that had that "As Maine goes, so goes the nation," been lost by their forefathers to the new ruling might come true. But it was not destined to class of industrialists. That this suggestive be. Dow's dream to banish intemperance from thesis must not be applied indiscriminately the land was doomed to fail during his long to all reformers in the mid-nineteenth cen­ lifetime that spanned almost an entire century. tury is demonstrated by the career of If Dow's dedication made him a more ef­ Neal Dow, the Napoleon of Temperance, fective reformer, it made him a less attractive Far from being one of the "displaced elite," personality. He ruthlessly subordinated his Dow was himself a member of the rising in­ relationships with other people to promote dustrial class. prohibitionism. As mayor of Portland in Frank L. Byrne, in his brief but penetrating 1855, he had no scruples about firing into biography, presents Dow as a fanatic—a driv­ a mob to protect a legal liquor store. When en man bent upon ridding America of Demon informed that one of the crowd had been Rum. This single-mindedness was the secret killed, he inquired hopefully if the victim to Dow's success. Born of Quaker parents in were Irish so that he might use the informa­ Portland, Maine, in 1804, Dow inherited his tion to good advantage with his Know-Nothing reforming zeal from his father who had helped supporters. Even his family suffered from his to form a local Society for Suppressing Vice fanaticism—he left his ninety-year old father and Immorality. Observing the evils of drink in charge of his business affairs when he —among Portland's paupers, among the em­ went off to lecture in England, and he con­ ployees of his father's tannery where the tradi­ stantly worried his reform-minded wife by tional practice of "grog time" was followed, his lengthy absences from home while on and even in his own social set where liquor temperance speaking tours. When his two- was served as a matter of course—Dow decid­ year old son died, Dow candidly confessed ed to enlist in the temperance crusade. Armed that his pre-occupation with prohibition pre­ with the twin principles of teetotalism and vented him from dwelling too long on the loss of the boy. prohibition, he set out upon an extraordinary career to do battle against the bottle. Byrne's biography is the best work by far And battle he did. Unlike earlier temper­ of this prohibitionist politician. Based upon ance leaders in his locale, Dow made no dis­ family papers in Portland, scrapbooks depos­ tinction between distilled and fermented ited at Drew University, and scattered letters drinks, and he attacked both the poor man's in numerous research libraries, the study

67 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961 is carefully documented and well-written. Though Byrne does not alter greatly our view REGIONAL AND STATE HISTORY of Dow's career, he offers new insights and casts much old material in a new light. Not Hamlin Garland's Early Work and Career. the least of his accomplishments is his ability to utilize Dow's autobiography as a revealing By DONALD PIZER. (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1960. Pp. xii, 220. Appendix, document of the reformer's unconscious as notes, bibliography, index. $4.50.) well as conscious thought. If this biography has any fault, it is one of omission. One would like to learn more: Following Hamlin Garland's death in 1940, more about the man and the movement out­ any would-be biographers of the Wisconsin- side the Pine Tree state; more about the born author were confronted by two problems dealings between the Prophet of Prohibition temptingly disguised as advantages. One was and the disciples of his day; more about the the inhibiting presence of his eight autobio­ relations of this reform to the other reforms graphical books. The other was the uncharted of the era. Despite these omissions, Byrne's rain forest of journals, notebooks, manu­ objective study is far superior to the nine­ scripts, and letters left by Garland to the teenth-century, adulatory sketches of Dow University of Southern California, which upon which we have had to rely until now. would have given pause to the most lion- hearted of researchers. But in 1960 the first two books about Garland appeared, and they GEORGE ATHAN BILLIAS are excellent, though very unlike each other. University of Maine Intended for the general reader, Jean Hollo- way's Hamlin Garland: A Biography (re­ viewed in this magazine in the Summer, 1961 issue), is an interesting and readable attempt, necessarily thin in many spots, to cram Gar­ land's eighty busy years into 300 pages. By contrast, Mr. Pizer, a young professor of English at Tulane University and easily the 4Hf principal authority on Garland, has written a shorter, more solid study. In scholarly fashion (450 footnotes), he focuses exclusively LOGMARK on Garland's most important decade as an EDITIONS author, his first. Pizer's concentration on the years 1885- 1895 is justified. In that period Garland pub­ lished a score of earthy, uncompromisingly realistic stories about rural life in the newly settled parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Dakota, The foregoing review introduces one of the which he had recently known as a dirt farmer. first titles in a new publishing venture in Often harsh or bitter, sometimes crude techni­ which the Society and the Department of His­ cally, the Main-Travelled Roads fiction was, tory of the University of Wisconsin have if unpalatable, a healthy infusion into genteel joined forces. Called LOGMARK EDITIONS, and late-Victorian letters. It remains Garland's identified by the distinctive colophon here­ most respected, and only historically import­ with reproduced, the series is an attempt to ant, work; and it is well worth Pizer's book- make available in attractive, hard-cover for­ by-book critical analysis (which the Hollo- mat significant research which, because of way biography slights). limited sales potential, might otherwise remain After the mid-nineties, Garland was to unpublished. The project is under the super­ turn (for reasons well traced in the HoUoway vision of a joint committee drawn from the biography) to more conventional, complacent, University faculty and the Society's staff, with saleable fiction, and to labor on without in­ the Society's book editor serving as editorial spiration into middle age. Later, with A Son consultant. Titles already published or sched­ of the Middle Border (1917), he would dis­ uled for publication are not limited to Ameri­ cover a successful autobiographical formula can history but embrace the general field of and pursue it, volume after volume after vol­ historical scholarship. ume, into his late years.

68 READERS CHOICE

But in his extremely active span between public attention to the serious nature of the twenty-five and thirty-five, the period cov­ problem and its implications for urban living. ered by Pizer's book, Garland was not only It was in this milieu that the present work a writer, but also a fearsomely energetic cru­ was conceived and executed. Written with sader for all sorts of liberal and reform causes marked sensitivity to the social and economic —regional art movements, realism in the dra­ dimensions of the law, it focuses its attention ma, Henry George's single tax, the Populists, on the legal control of the purity of water the rights of the New Woman, etc. Pizer ad­ supply in one state—Wisconsin. In doing so, mirably sifts and relates all this activity, and it contributes to a more sophisticated under­ unravels the complex of radical ideas—philo­ standing of the economic, political, and legal sophical, aesthetic, economic, political, so­ factors that come into play when efforts are cial—which made young Garland unique as made to regulate a natural resource. a writer and really notable as an all-around Willard Hurst, in a Foreword to the book, reformer. It is a sound and thorough por­ notes how the study has relevance and inter­ trait of the artist as a young man with too est to disciplines other than the law. It is many irons in the fire. precisely this aspect of Professor Murphy's An appendix supplies a calendar of Gar­ work that is most appealing. For in his treat­ land's complicated travels and a year-by-year ment of the subject he delves into the econo­ bibliography lists the 187 scattered pieces mics of resource conservation, the maneuver­ he published prior to 1896. Finally, there is a ing of interest groups, the intricacies of the catalog of the principal materials packed into administrative process, and the science and the fat blue boxes in the Garland Collection art of public administration. The result is at U.S.C., which Pizer was the first student an interesting study that transcends the topic to work through with care. of the book itself. He will not be the last, of course. At the In tracing the long history to achieve ef­ moment, two Europeans—a young Sorbonne fective pollution control in Wisconsin, the scholar and a Swedish specialist in American author carefully examines and copiously docu­ naturalism—are engaged on books about Gar­ ments the roles played by the state administra­ land. But though he is uncomplicated. Gar­ tors, the legislature, the courts, the various land is a peculiarly American author, and a interest groups, and the general public. He Westerner to boot; and to this reviewer it shows how the state's campaign for water seems unlikely that he can be fully and sen­ purity has come a long way from the days sitively understood at Paris or Upsala, no when an assemblyman could suggest the matter how intelligent the attempt. Mean­ cleansing of polluted streams simply by hav­ while, with his admirable command of the ing the citizens "open their water faucets for native ingredients of the young Hamlin Gar­ about 15 minutes at a certain time in the land, Mr. Pizer has taken apart and reas­ day. The additional flow of water will flush sembled him with such authority and in such the sewers and greatly aid in purifying the precise detail that his book can only be called disposal." Or, as the chairman of a local definitive. The early Garland has been done. health board put it, "a little sewage never harmed anyone."

JAMES B. STRONKS It is generally recognized that Wisconsin's University of Illinois (Chicago) administrative machinery for water purity control has worked at a more effective level than that in most states. In exploring the reas­ ons for this success. Murphy questions some of the sacred tenets of administrative manage­ ment theory. He demonstrates, for example, Water Purity: A Study in Legal Control of how an interdepartmental committee repre­ Natural Resources. By EARL LINEAR MURPHY. senting the several state offices most con­ (The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, cerned with regulating water pollution has 1961. Pp. 212. $4.75.) been able to carry out a successful program of control by working through existing units. Next to traffic and mass transit, water (and Traditional administrative dogma would look its related aspects) has perhaps become the askance at such an arrangement, insisting that most important domestic problem confront­ operating responsibility should be concen­ ing the nation. A plethora of popular articles trated in a single agency. The author shows and scholarly studies in recent years has called how impracticable it would be to attempt to

69 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961 extract all matters relating to water pollution Mountain Wolf Woman, Sister of Crashing from the various departments concerned and Thunder: The Autobiography of a Winnebago place them in a single agency, despite the Indian. Edited by NANCY OESTREICH LURIE. appearance of logic and efficiency in such Foreword by RuTH UNDERHILL. (The Univer­ an approach. sity of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1961. Pp. Water pollution control in Wisconsin has XX, 142. Illustrations. $4.95.) operated primarily through the establishment of standards for observance by municipalities Mountain Wolf Woman is the autobiogra­ and industries. The success of the program phy of a Winnebago Indian woman who lived has therefore depended largely upon the ac­ in Wisconsin from her birth in 1884 to her ceptance and execution of these regulations death in 1959. The story is told in Mountain by the affected parties. To cultivate this ac­ Wolf Woman's own words, in fact, it is a ceptance it has been necessary for the state direct translation from the Winnebago lan­ interdepartmental committee on water pollu­ guage in which she tape-recorded her life tion to avoid a too severe or complete enforce­ story. The editing was done by Nancy ment of the program and to be sympathetic Oestreich Lurie, an anthropologist who was to the economic factors involved. By doing adopted into the Winnebago tribe. The story so the administrators of the program have itself is a simple one: the daily life of a been able to prevent the organization of any woman of the tribe, the changes in her life massive resistance on the part of those to be as she matures and as Winnebago culture regulated and to provide the incentives for changes. Through the story the reader obtains voluntary law observance. a knowledge of the Winnebago culture of that The author, while highly laudatory of the period. Aspects of change in the culture, water control administrators, also shows the change that came about either through re­ necessity of keeping the bureaucratic machin­ action to or acceptance of American culture, ery from becoming too self-contained and can be seen. smug. As he well expresses it, administrative The autobiography of Mountain Wolf Wom­ agencies occasionally require "an external an is meant to be a companion book to the challenge from either public opinion makers autobiography of her brother, Crashing or public representatives in state office. With­ Thunder, edited by the anthropologist Paul out that interest, the agencies seem unable to Radin. Together the two books form a study provide a continuing flow of ideas that would of the effects that a changing culture can have keep the work of the agency moving progres­ on the lives of a man and a woman. Dr. Lurie sively. There is a need for stimulus and for makes reference to incidents in the life of ideas from outside the official ranks which Crashing Thunder in the footnotes and com­ cannot be overlooked." The stimulus has been pares the brother and sister in an appendix provided in the case of Wisconsin's pollution to Mountain Wolf Woman. The Radin volume control administration by pressure groups, should be read in order to understand fully such as the Izaak Walton League, and on oc­ the contrast in the lives of the brother and casion by the executive and legislative branch­ sister. es of the state government. Mountain Wolf Woman should be read thor­ Despite the multiplication of treatment oughly, including footnotes, preface, and plants and better control of industrial waste, appendix. Mountain Wolf Woman tells her the problem of water pollution is far from story as if everyone were familiar with Winne­ solved in Wisconsin or elsewhere. Rapid pop­ bago culture. Dr. Lurie expands upon inci­ ulation growth and industrial expansion are dents told in the autobiography and accurate­ overtaxing the nation's disposal facilities and ly interprets their meaning in the footnotes. outstripping its efforts to keep up with new The footnotes are distracting since they are development. Studies such as the present one at the end of the book, necessitating a con­ help to put the problem in its proper per­ stant shifting of pages. The preface and the spective and to provide the insights necessary appendix make fascinating reading, for here for intelligent action. Dr. Lurie tells how the book came to be written, and the relationship between Moun­ tain Wolf Woman and Dr. Lurie, that of HENRY J. SCHMANDT aunt and adopted niece, is warmly described. University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee Dr. Lurie offers the autobiography for the human appeal of the story and for its insights

70 READERS CHOICE into Winnebago culture. In addition, it offers influence the President's command decisions. the human appeal of the relationship between Even though Randolph held office for only aunt and adopted niece and insights into the eight months, he very likely influenced Davis work of an anthropologist. in establishing a Western Department with JOAN FREEMAN Johnston as its head and in convincing the Confederate Congress of the need for con­ State Historical Society of Wisconsin scription. Although reorganization in the West was accomplished under the secretary­ GENERAL HISTORY ship of Seddon, it was first initiated by Ran­ dolph. If Randolph emerges from this book Confederate Strategy from Shiloh to Vicks­ in a new light, so, too, does Jefferson Davis. burg. By ARCHER JONES. (Louisiana State The picture of Davis presented by Frank University Press, Baton Rouge, 1961. Pp. xxi, Vandiver's excellent little study Rebel Brass 258. Bibliography, maps, index. $5.00.) is that of a rather irascible, often pig-headed commander-in-chief. While Jones acknowl­ In the mass of Civil War literature that edges Davis' faults and inadequacies, he does threatens to deluge the current book market, portray him sympathetically as one capable a volume occasionally appears which makes a of delegating authority. Some readers will worthwhile contribution to our understanding disagree with this characterization of Jefferson of the conflict. Such a volume is Professor Davis, but most will agree that "Davis and Jones' Confederate Strategy. In his analysis his War Secretaries bear scrutiny well. While of the factors determining Confederate strate­ genius was absent, ability and insight were gy, the author first reviews the military situa­ demonstrated." tion in the West not merely from the myopic Archer Jones has given an intelligent an­ viewpoint of local commanders but from the alysis of Confederate Western strategy and distant vantage point of the War Department has presented novel interpretations of Jeffer­ in Richmond. He then analyzes the confusion son Davis and George Randolph. His book and breakdown of command organization that is a significant addition to any Civil War or led to the logical decision to combine military military history collection. forces in the West under a single commander in November, 1862, Joseph E. Johnston. In JOHN BUECHLER discussing the confusion and lack of co-ordi­ University of Florida nation between Bragg, Van Dorn, Price, and Pemberton, Jones develops a picture of Davis as a resolute but amenable war leader. Although Jones admits that the strategic Louis Agassiz: A Life in Science. By EDWARD "territorial defense" adopted by Davis lacked LURIE. (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, flexibility and necessitated the dispersal of 1960. Pp. xiv, 449. Illustrations, notes, essay Confederate troops over wide and often un- on sources, index. $7.50.) threatened areas, he maintains that Davis' concept of defense was justified by considera­ Whoever has read the previous biographies tions both political and logistical, as well as of Agassiz will recognize the need that Pro­ military. Davis' defensive policy brought him fessor Lurie's fills. Elizabeth Cary Agassiz's into conflict with General Joseph E. Johnston, life presented her husband as his friends saw who wanted to concentrate his troops to meet him, but omitted the controversy in which he the advance of Grant's army. As Jones points was continually involved. Jules Marcou, out, Davis and Johnston would disagree often, Agassiz's student and protege, considered mat­ particularly over the value of eastern and mid­ ters that Mrs. Agassiz did not, but saw them dle Tennessee, which Johnston considered of from his master's point of view. As a result, vital importance. both authors make readers aware that much The role played by Confederate Secretary more needs to be said about Agassiz. of War George Randolph in formulating the Lurie imparts no such disappointment. By policy in the West has been generally un­ stressing Agassiz's early and lasting dedica­ known. By using previously untapped manu­ tion to science, he indicates the element that script sources, Jones draws the conclusion was supreme in Agassiz's character. Deter­ that either Randolph and Davis frequently mined as he was, Agassiz escaped the parent­ concurred in decisions or that Randolph's ally favored career as a Swiss physician, dis­ opinions were respected enough by Davis to tinguished himself as a student in various

71 WISCONSIN MAG.AZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

European universities, and won the patronage features which overbalance them would be of Cuvier and Humboldt. The great work in easier to compile. Since such a catalog would fossil ichthyology which followed and his re­ grow long, one reference will have to suffice searches in glaciology established him as a here. The assessment of Agassiz in the "Pre­ scientist of international importance. Few face" is brilliant. The remainder of the book men have so captured the imagination of fulfills the promise of this introduction. Americans. To his adopted countrymen he seemed the personification of science, and EDWARD J. PFEIFER they j oyfuUy supported his enterprises in ways that varied from collecting turtles to contribut­ St. Michael's College ing an island for a summer school. In return Agassiz took a leading part in developing American scientific education and institutions. The Mexican War. By OTIS A. SINGLETARY. Though we understand all of this better (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1960. by reading Lurie's book, we knew about it Pp. vii, 181. Illustrations, bibliography, before. No other biographer, however, has maps, index. $3.75.) so illuminated the mind of Agassiz. His re­ jection of the German Naturphilosophie and The publication in 1919 of Justin H. Smith's his acceptance of a different but similarly monumental study marked a hiatus in schol­ idealistic system constitute a fascinating chap­ arly attention to the Mexican War. The few ter in Agassiz's intellectual history. Especially writers who subsequently reviewed that con­ noteworthy is the suddenness with which this flict dealt in a popular manner with its mili­ view froze into absolute truth as far as tary aspects. In contributing to the Chicago Agassiz was concerned. Lurie has also re­ History of American Civilization series, Otis stored a previously obscured dimension of A. Singletary fits squarely into that tradi­ Agassiz's personality by showing how he came tion, but unlike his predecessors views the to identify his own interests as the interests war as a case study in civil-military relations. of science. This subjectivity led him to pro­ The result is an illuminating but pessimistic mote his own projects tirelessly, to battle with commentary on the nation's "fixed devotion" his students and assistants, to scheme with to civil supremacy over its military establish­ cronies over scientific organizations and es­ ment. tablishments, and to become the implacable The Mexican War was a significant event enemy of the Darwinian theory. In treating in United States military history. It was on this last topic Lurie has definitively laid to Mexican battlefields that the West Point grad­ rest some ideas fostered by contemporary uate proved the value of his training, thereby scholarship. He has shown that Agassiz did justifying the existence of the Academy, not view Darwinism with scientific objectivity which from the beginning had been regarded and that his influence among American sci­ by many as an unnecessary expense. For entists consequently declined. the first time, newspaper correspondents trav­ Agassiz's inconsistency in regarding him­ eled regularly with the army, relaying to the self as the champion of science when in fact States their observations of camp and battle. he lacked capacity for detachment is only one It was an hour of glory for the army's new of many that he displayed. Though Lurie is "flying artillery" and for young artillery­ aware of these contradictions and discusses men—Bragg, Jackson, Thomas, and others. them, greater use of them would have made Field commanders boldly and without pre­ his portrayal of Agassiz more vivid. Nor has cedent declared martial law and established Lurie exploited the drama involved in the military government on enemy soil. It was series of clashes over Darwinism between the United States' first successful offensive Agassiz and the equally strong-minded Wil­ war. liam Barton Rogers at the Boston Society of Mr. Singletary, who teaches American mil­ Natural History. The fact that Rogers more itary history at the University of Texas, de­ decisively than anyone else defeated Agassiz votes over one half of his slender book to on this question and showed both the character the causes and campaigns of the war; then and the futility of his opposition deserves describes and evaluates the dissension ap­ more attention. parent at all command levels. Throughout These reservations are, however, decidedly the volume, he underscores the administra­ minor and relate largely to the manner of tive and command difficulties that inevitably presentation. A list of especially praiseworthy arise in a nation where domestic politics in-

72 READERS CHOICE fluence the civil control over the military parties should forego partisan politics and and where battlefield heroes are rewarded with maintain a flexible policy. Civil authority, high political office. he believes, should consult military subordi­ The author's summaries of the principal nates in formulating policy, but the military campaigns are well-written and interesting, should, without interference, draw up and but add nothing to the military knowledge of prosecute its own war plans. In overview, the war. In well-structured chapters, he des­ Singletary sees efficient civil and military cribes Taylor's invasion of northern Mexico, administration as basic to national unity. sketches hurriedly the conquest of the South­ Supplementing the text are eight plates, west and California, and in great detail re­ a calendar of military dates, and a brief dis­ counts Scott's thrust inland from Vera Cruz. cussion of additional reading. The readings Many of Singletary's generalizations invite range from memoirs, diaries, and govern­ comment. To say the war illustrated the in­ ment documents to general secondary ac­ effectiveness of the European military system counts and pictorial histories. The little vol­ when employed in the New World (p. 2) is ume has several disturbing features. Care­ to minimize the fact that in the 1840's Ameri­ less proofreading is evident, with misspelled can artillerymen followed French manuals words in the text, the readings, and on the in maneuvering and prevailing English prac­ first map. The index has inaccuracies. There tices in serving their weapons. Wool's move­ are no footnotes. ments from San Antonio toward Chihuahua The book reflects neither fresh research nor are vague (p. 44). Wool did not abandon new insight into the causes, nature, or results the venture upon crossing the Rio Grande, of the conflict of 1846-1848. For the general but later at Monclova, deep in Coahuila, where reader, however, it is a provocative essay on he learned that roads west from that city American democracy at war. would not permit wheeled traffic. At Worth's plea for aid, not Taylor's orders, Wool hur­ HARWOOD P. HINTON ried to Buena Vista. Singletary includes maps Texas A. & M. College for the early engagements in northern Mexico and for Scott's battles to the south, but none for Buena Vista, the "greatest single battle of the war." Trimmers, Trucklers & Temporizers, Notes Singletary's case study approach to the war of Murat Halstead from the Political Conven­ brings into sharp focus the role of domestic tions of 1856. Edited by WILLIAM B. HESSEL­ politics in civil-military relations. With skill TINE and REX G. FISHER. (The State Histori­ he delineates Polk's struggle to win the war cal Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1961. Pp. with two Whig generals, without allowing xiv, 114. Notes, bibliography, index. $3.50.) either of them to acquire "sufficient luster" to imperil the Democratic party at the polls. Murat Halstead, a twenty-seven year old He points out that Taylor, as his political reporter for the Cincinnati Commercial when aspirations grew, became insubordinate to he covered the several national nominating civil authority and that Polk, to shore up conventions of 1856, had already developed Democratic fortunes and to neutralize Taylor's a cynical and hard-boiled attitude toward popularity, opened a second front by placing politics and a pungent writing style. He had Scott, also a Whig, in charge of the Vera Cruz earlier gained some notice for his on-the-spot expedition. But the President, wary of Scott's reports of the Crimean War, but his political political affiliations, allowed the general little columns in 1856 placed him in the front rank opportunity for glory. He chastized Scott for of newspaper pundits, a position he did not being harsh to disobedient subordinates— relinquish until the beginning of the twentieth especially General Pillow, the President's for­ century. By the time of his death he had mer law partner—sent Nicholas Trist as a written, in the form of newspaper articles personal representative to discuss the peace, and books, probably a million words a year and at the war's end ordered the victorious for forty years. Scott before a court of inquiry! Thus was The republication of much of his report­ re-enacted the struggle both civil and military ing of the nominating conventions of 1856 authorities face under a system of government will be welcomed by historians and prove where politics determines policy. entertaining to anyone interested in rough The author offers no alternative or solu­ and tumble politics. Professor Hesseltine in tion to the problem. He suggests that both 1960 edited the more extensive reports of

73 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

Halstead on the 1860 conventions under the for Fremont, Halstead labelled the whole po­ title Three Against Lincoln. The volume now litical tribe "trucklers, temporizers and com­ under review forms a useful addition to it as promisers" (p. 80). a source of information about the turbulence Hesseltine and Fisher have prepared an of pre-Civil War politics. excellent introduction, an adequate index, Although professing an intention to re­ and end-notes which for the most part cite port objectively and to serve as "historian" the source of extracts, although some notes of all he witnessed, Halstead in 1856 labored aie explanatory and a few reprint additional under the defect of a myopia which prevented material by Halstead. I wish the editors and him from seeing any good impulse in a poli­ publisher had reprinted the articles selected tician or any spark of patriotism in parties in full. The introduction contains a good other than the abolition wing of the Repub­ many quotations from Halstead which do licans. With trenchant vocabulary, he labelled not appear in the articles in the main text, the Know Nothing party program "nothing­ though the notes show that the material ap­ ness sectionalized" (p. 8) and candidate Fill­ peared in the same edition of the Cincinnati more "an inveterate enemy of freedom" (p. Commercial. But most of all, the reviewer is 9). Buchanan appeared as "the personifica­ grateful that this book has appeared. Every tion of evasion and the embodiment of an student of the period will find it provocative inducement to dodge" (p. 17), Douglas as and useful. a "vulgarian, dishonest truckler, loud-mouthed bully, and ill-conditioned ape" (pp. xi, 19), PHILIP S. KLEIN and Pierce as "stupid" (p. 64). Halstead pic­ Pennsylvania State University tured the Democrats as creatures covered with crime and disgrace (p. 21) and the Tom Ford Know Nothings as "the tail and hind legs, merely, of an animal entering regularly into Immigration and American History: Essays a race" (p. 87). in Honor of Theodore C. Blegen. Edited by He found meetings of Republicans "dis­ HENRY STEELE COMMAGER. (University of tinguished by a spirit of candor and mutual Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1961. Pp. x, concession," marred by "no manifestations of 152. Notes, bibliography, index. $4.50.) intolerance or fanaticism" (p. 14). At the Philadelphia convention which nominated When Theodore C. Blegen began his long Fremont, he reported that there was "but a career as historian and educator, the field of slight quantity of liquor consumed, very little immigration historiography was the monopoly profane swearing . . . and everything is man­ of polemicists and filiopietist writers. Now, as aged with excessive and intense propriety" Professor Blegen retires as dean of the Uni­ (p. 87). But at the Democratic convention versity of Minnesota graduate school, this at Cincinnati he observed a herd of "buzzards area of scholarship, to which he has contrib­ and other camp-followers—pimps and prosti­ uted so much, is graced with a substantial tutes, political and other gamblers" (p. 23). body of mature and perceptive historical lit­ Halstead characterized the second Know Noth­ erature. This collection of essays is testimonv ing convention as an unparalleled example to the vast strides that have been made by the of "barefaced humbuggery" and "naked men of Professor Blegen's generation and by knavishness" (p. 75). their students. The evident bias of Halstead's political As is true of most Festschriften, the pres­ viewpoint did not prevent him, however, from ent volume is a mixed package. The essays occasionally giving the devil his due. His range from Oscar Handlin's brilliantly sug­ characterization of important public figures gestive reappraisal of the role of immigra­ is magnificent; his interpretation of political tion in American life, to a group of brief, events and their causes shrewd and realistic, inconsequential historiographical items. Sev­ though oversimple. But he could never free eral of the contributors venture into largely his mind from the faulty assumption that only unexplored territory: Ingrid Semmingsen, a the Republican party stood for "national pol­ Norwegian historian, considers the impact icy," whereas all the others unpatriotically of emigration on European history, and Philip espoused "southern policy" (p. 21). With Jordan views the native American as the new­ this blind spot, his interpretation lacked per­ comers saw him. Others cover more familiar ception. When the Republicans by-passed terrain: John T. Flanagan and Henry A. his favorite, Salmon P. Chase, in preference Pochman examine the great migrations from

74 READERS CHOICE the point of view of literary and intellectual which the immigrant cherished in Europe history, and Carleton C. Qualey attempts to were often, as Professor Jordan suggests, place immigration in its world context. In rudely shattered when the newcomer first editing the collection, Henry Steele Commager confronted the Yankee in his native habitat. contributes his customarily expert foreword Professor Handlin, who has always stressed and a brief introductory piece. The volume the less happy side of the immigrant's ad­ concludes with a historiographical article by justment, believes that American historians Professor Blegen himself. have, in general, been overly sanguine in their Yet despite this heterogeneity, certain approach to the nation's past. The immi­ themes permeate these essays—themes that grant's experience is but one example of the have become the hallmarks of recent scholar­ often neglected strain of tragedy running ship in immigration history. In the first through American history. place, these writers recognize the international Finally, the contemporary historians of im­ character of the nineteenth-century migrations. migration are looking beyond the confines Men were on the move in every continent, and of their own field and using their knowledge barriers which hitherto separated country to provide new perspectives on the larger from country disappeared as the frontiers of problems of American history. This new ap­ the world contracted. As Professor Qualey proach, writes Oscar Handlin, "does not draw points out, world-wide factors—overpopula­ so sharp a line between the immigrants and tion, industrialization, agricultural competi­ other Americans |but] starts rather with the tion, the flow of capital, improved transporta­ assumption that the entire population of the tion facilities—produced not only the Euro­ United States almost from the start was a pean migrations but also the less familiar composite, made up of elements from a mul­ movements from China into Manchuria and titude of sources" (p. 11). Such phenomena Southeastern Asia. And migration profound­ as the collapse of the traditional community, ly affected not only the receiving nations but the breakdown of family life, economic dislo­ the countries of origin as well. Thus Mrs. cation, and the development of a folk culture Semmingsen suggests that the image of a de­ have been closely studied in relation to the mocratic, equalitarian America, as reflected immigrants, but their relevance is limited in immigrant letters, encouraged the Euro­ to no single group. The newcomer "repre­ pean peasants and workers in their quest for sented only the extreme of a condition that greater political and economic privileges at was general to the whole society." By setting home. his findings in this larger context, the historian Secondly, the contributors to this volume of immigration can contribute to a broader eschew the old concept of "the Promised understanding of the development of Ameri­ Land" and emphasize the human tragedy in­ can civilization. volved whenever men must leave familiar surroundings and begin life anew in an alien ALLAN H. SPEAR country. The half-mythical images of America Yale University

BOOK REVIEWS: Byrne, Prophet of Prohibition: Neal Dow and His Crusade, reviewed by George Athan Billias 67 Commager, ed., Immigration and American History: Essays in Honor of Theodore C. Blegen, reviewed by Allan H. Spear 74 Hesseltine and Fisher, eds., Trimmers, Trucklers & Temporizers, Notes of Murat Halstead from the Political Conventions of 1856, reviewed by Philip S. Klein 73 Jones, Confederate Strategy from Shiloh to Vicksburg, reviewed by John Buechler 71 Lurie, Louis Agassiz: A Life in Science, reviewed by Edward J. Pfeifer 71 Lurie, ed., Mountain Wolf Woman, Sister of Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian, reviewed by Joan Freeman 70 Murphy, Water Purity: A Study in Legal Control of Natural Resources, reviewed by Henry J. Schmandt 69 Pizer, Hamlin Garland's Early Work and Career, reviewed by James B. Stronks 68 Singletary, The Mexican War, reviewed by Harwood P. Hinton 72

75 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1961

WILLIAM FLETCHER THOMP­ (santtllrutot^. SON, JR., professor of history at Wisconsin State College in Oshkosh, was born in San DAVID A. SHANNON, born in Francisco in 1929. He earned Terre Haute in 1920, is a his Bachelor's and Master's 1941 graduate of Indiana degrees in history at Stanford State College. After a brief University and attended the career as a school teacher University of Wisconsin from 1952 to 1956, in his native state he entered where he received his Ph.D. in American the Army and following his history in 1959. His doctoral dissertation military service enrolled at on the pictorial reporting and propaganda the University of Wisconsin where he got of the Civil War was published in 1960 by his M.A. in 1946 and his Ph.D. in 1950, Thomas Yoseloff of New York as The Image both in American history. From 1948 to 1951 of War. He is an associate member of the he was instructor of history at Carnegie Wisconsin Civil War Centennial Commission. Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, then In addition to his interest in the Civil War, until 1957 taught at Columbia University Mr. Thompson has worked in the field of where he was successively assistant and asso­ Western American history and has published ciate professor. In 1957 he returned to the an article on Senator Milton S. Latham of University of Wisconsin where he is pro­ California. fessor of American history. Mr. Shannon's major interest has been in the history of various aspects of the American Left, as exemplified in his published articles on CHARLES N. GLAAB, whose American radical history and his books. study of William Gilpin and The Socialist Party of America; A History his theories of urban develop­ (1955), and The Decline of American Com­ ment in the Midwest appears munism; A History of the Communist Party in this issue, is an associate in the United States since 1945 (1959). He professor of history at the was also co-author of A History of Teachers University of Wisconsin- College, Columbia University (1954) and Milwaukee and Director of editor of The Great Depression (1960). the Society's new Section of Urban History. Mr. Glaab is a native of Williston, North Dakota, holds the B.Ph. and M.A. degrees from the University of North Dakota, and ROY N. LOKKEN was born in received his Ph.D. in history from the Uni­ Fargo, North Dakota, in 1917 versity of Missouri in 1958. Prior to coming and took his undergraduate to the Society he was a research associate work at the College (now for the History of Kansas City Project, University) of Puget Sound. sponsored by the University of Chicago, and He served with the Army in also assistant professor of history at Kansas the India-Burma Theatre dur­ State University. ing World War II and after­ wards received his M.A. (1951) and his Ph.D. (1955) degrees in American history at the University of Washington. He joined RICHARD W. E. PERRIN, whose valuable series the State Historical Society of Wisconsin's on the architectural history of the state is staff as assistant archivist in 1955, and since continued in this issue, has been appointed 1958 has been a Research Associate with the acting director of Milwaukee's new Depart­ Wisconsin Legislative Council. He is the ment of City Development. For the past author of David Lloyd, Colonial Lawmaker fifteen years Mr. Perrin has been executive (reviewed in the Spring, 1961, issue). director of the city's housing authority.

76 LIST OF DONORS TO THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN I960 1961

Individuals Ill

Organizations XV

Donors to the M.C.H.C. XIX

Supplement to The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 45, No. 1, Autumn, 1961 In Appreciation

T is with a deep sense of gratitude that we Is your name on the list? Can you help I list herewith the names of the individuals the Society in some way by a gift of money and organizations from all over the United or manuscripts, of books or photographs, States who have supported the Society during or of artifacts for the museum? Do not let the twelve months ending on June 30, 1961. the size of the gift deter you from giving, This is an imposing, an impressive list. There since its importance is measured by what are over one thousand names on it—people it can contribute to our knowledge of the and groups of people from Alabama to past. We could not have afforded to buy the Wyoming, from some foreign countries, and, treasures we have received; our leading posi­ of course, from our own Wisconsin. They are tion among historical agencies was made listed because they have supported the Society possible by generous donors. financially or by gifts to its collections. The The Board of Curators and the staff of total value of these gifts is immeasurable in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin take dollars, but more importantly, their value this opportunity to thank all who are listed lies in helping the Society to preserve the here for their valued support. essence of the past for the edification and appreciation of present and future gener­ LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR. ations. Director

The Society's Building, dedicated October 19, 1900. Individual Donors

Alabama Connecticut Mobile New Britain Mr. and Mrs. E. G. Kern* Maurice Stanley Arizona New London Richard Lowitt Phoenix William L. Doudna New Preston Mrs. Albert Stirling Smith California Rocky Hill Covina Charles H. Gescheidt Mrs. Lotus Semerau Stonington Lafayette Mrs. Irvine Lenroot Loren P. Meissner Delaware Los Angeles Dr. John W. Caughey Newark S. J. Clauson John Munroe Edward W. Freda" Mrs. Henry A. Harris District of Columbia Hazen Hendricks Hunkins Washington Ojai Mrs. Mabel Van Dyke Baer Miss Helen Robertson William Wallace Cochran Miss Frances Tappan Stuart Wilbur J. Cohen Miss Alma H. Cramer Pasadena George A. Garrett Elsa E. Weber Robert G. Lewis Dr. Charles E. Bell Philleo Nash Redondo Beach Ivan Nestingen Mrs. A. McDonald Frank Peiro Randolph Henry C. Taylor San Francisco Harry C. Trelogan James De T. Abajian* Don Francis Florida Gerald White DeLand Santa Monica Frank M. Phillips Mrs. Ernest Schwartztrauber Peter R. Steiner Gainesville Mr. and Mrs. James M. Wood E. Ashby Hammond Stanford Jacksonville Thomas Barclay Miss Marjory Green Frank Freidel Naples Colorado Mrs. W. N. Allyn Denver Palmetto Miss Harriet Shepard Mrs. Janet Reid Kellogg Fort Collins St. Petersburg Mrs. Eugene Gammon Hans Kuether

* Indicates member. Sarasota Niles Merle Evans Aimer Pennewell Tavernier Normal Dr. Herbert S. Zim Arlan C. Helgeson Winter Park Rochelle Jacob Holzer* Mrs. Earl Chapin May Georgia Rock Island Roy L. Martin* Atlanta James Rabun Urbana Mrs. Judson Ward J. Leonard Bates Miss Claire Booth Illinois Waukegan Belvidere Mrs. Clair S. Sherry Robert L. Steenrod Wheaton Chicago Charles I. Brigham, Jr. Thomas J. Barnett "Bozo the Clown" Cooper Winnetka Colonel Horace J. Mellum* Mrs. Edna F. Bobroff Erwin A. Meyers* Arthur Chilgren Howard Potter* Richard Rubovits Indiana Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur R. Voigt Evansville Clarendon Hills Karl Kae Knecht Mrs. Raymond Baruth Gary Elgin Mrs. John Fedorchak Mrs. Eliza Van Pelt Hohart Evanston Charles E. Lambdin Ray A. Billington Indianapolis Mrs. Manly S. Mumford Earl R. Brown Mrs. Harlow Roberts Mrs. Sarah King Harvey Fairbury Peru Benjamin Nussbaum Ollie Miller Geneva Iowa H. N. Ross Cedar Rapids Glencoe Mrs. Roy E. Curray William J. Hagenah* E. J. Dohnal Hinsdale Dubuque John S. Lord Roland White Mrs. Ralph Peirce Fort Dodge La Grange Mrs. Jesse Richmond Swanney Mr. and Mrs. Harold F. Wood Iowa City La Grange Park Mrs. A. K. Fisher Miss Laura Adams* Kansas Marshall Pittsburg Mrs. Betty L. Turner Johnnie Marietta Kentucky Minneapolis Rev. Rasmus J. Meland Florence Miss Beulah Taylor William Fitzgerald Mrs. Richard Teslow Louisiana Osseo Miss Julia Hulburt New Orleans Miss Ruby K. Worner Paynesville Mrs. W. R. Marsh Shreveport Mrs. Pearl Duncan Larmoyeux Rochester Dr. Frederick L. Smith Maryland St. Paul West Hyattsville Miss Ona A. Grume* Milton Rubincam Windom Massachusetts S. A. Brown Brookline Norton Mezvinsky Missouri Cambridge Columbia Frederick Merk Richard Kirkendall Marblehead Jefferson City Robert Parsons Hugh P. Williamson Middleboro Kansas City Lawrence Romaine Bernard Baranowski Palmer Norvil L. Brown* Miss Harriett Tabor West St. Louis Springfield Dr. and Mrs. Henry Ema Seth R. Clark Sarcoxie Topsfield Dr. George B. Esterly J. L. McCorison* Montana Michigan Billings Farmington Mr. and Mrs. Philip M. Widenhouse E. W. De LaVergne* Missoula Ironwood Edward Earl Bennett* Linwood L. Noyes Claude Elder Kalamazoo Alfred Barnes Connable, Jr. Nevada Mr. and Mrs. Paul Rood Carson City Lincoln Fenton Hamilton F. B. Voegele Mrs. Paul Rabe Minnesota New Hampshire Duluth Exeter Alfred Hanson Henry F. Bedford Walter J. Harris* Edward Echols New Jersey Allard Lowenstein Arnaud C. Marts Mountain Lakes Paul Nadler Mrs. William E. Orvis Samuel Bobbins Princeton Pelhani Eric Goldman Mrs. Edwin J. Rooney Ridgewood Port Washington Clifford L. Lord* Edward Hunter Rockaway Rochester A. Bertram Davis Beaumont Newhall South River Glyndon Van Deusen Marcus S. Wright, Jr. Troy Mrs. Ina C. Payne New York Westbury Albany Robert Ernst Kendall Birr Williainsville Batavia Mr. and Mrs. Julius Pratt Mr. and Mrs. Irwin Smith Brooklyn North Carolina Isidore Silver Asheville Buffalo Mrs. Allen Lockwood Carl W. Georgi Chapel Hill Chappaqua Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Engstrom Mr. and Mrs. Leslie H. Fishel, Sr.* Alexander Heard Mr. and Mrs. George Tindall Elmont Raleigh Mawry Kershaw Christopher Crittenden Hamilton Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Noblin Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ray Wilson Southern Pines Jackson Heights Mrs. A. V. Arnold Miss Beatrice Fry Hyslop North Dakota Keesville Koert D. Burnham Ray Donald Fuoter Marathon Leslie Peebles Ohio New York City Akron Misses Livia and Reola Appel Thomas Bardon, Jr. Edward Jackson Elmer Berger Miss Irma Sachs Lawrence Cremin Cleveland Charles B. Forcey W. W. Vandeveer Herbert Gutman Francis S. Harinon Columbus John C. Helenore F. D. Pfening, Jr. Michael Kraus Svend Kristensen Dayton Lilli Kristensen Laurence P. Richmond* Elyria Memphis Mrs. Rodney Rockwood A. K. Burrow Glendale Nashville Mrs. C. Maxwell Dieffenbach Dewey Grantham Kenton Texas Miss Katharine Crane Austin Oberlin M. H. Crockett Mrs. Robert S. Fletcher Thomas H. LeDuc Dallas Mrs. A. F. St. Peter Oregon Houston Florence H. A. Vallas Mrs. J. M. Henderson San Antonio Portland David B. Trimble George N. Angell Mrs. Henry M. Guyer Utah Harry Lichter Huntsville Salem Donald D. McKay Mrs. Ruth Hagermaster Salt Lake City Pennsylvania James J. Jenkins Bethlehem Vermont Henry C. Jones North Bennington Easton Mr. and Mrs. Lucien M. Hanks Charles M. Sandwick, Sr. Springfield Forty Fort Senator Ralph Flanders Mr. and Mrs. Harold Thatcher Woodstock Honesdale N. Grier Parke, II Fred W. Kost Virginia Lebanon Arlington Dr. Walter A. Brussock Miss Fola La Follette* Pittsburgh Farmville Dr. John P. GiUin Francis B. Simkins Selinsgrove Vienrui Arlan K. Gilbert Miss Katharine Brand Wyalusing Williamsburg Miss Lydia F. Allen Lester J. Cappon* South Dakota Thad Tate Brookings Washington Charles Harris Benrud Seattle Tennessee Edward W. Allen* Harrogate Suquamish Wayne C. Temple Mrs. Eva Bewick

Vll Wisconsin Blanchardville Miss Beulah Folkedahl* Albany Fred Kaeser Natheh Bowman Eugene Williams Abbotsford Bloomington Assemblyman Frank L. Nikolay Miss Margaret Bonn Mrs. Marion Felder Appleton Mrs. W. R. Bruce Boscobel Alden M. Johnston* Howard H. Matthews Dr. J. B. MacLaren* Ray Parkinson Brodhead Mrs. Abbie Pond* Mrs. James P. Allen Irving Schwerke Mrs. Ben Roderick* Mr. and Mrs. John Strange* Brookfield Joseph Witmer* Arthur R. Boerner* Arcadia Mrs. Dola Decker Dr. Elizabeth Comstock* Harold W. Hein Baraboo Burlington A. R. Attridge Mrs. Roy Moore John M. Kelley* Burnett Corners Mrs. Frank Marquardt M. C. Nelson Courtney Schlagle Robert Ott Cambridge Mrs. William Radtke Mrs. Fred Rusch Carl G. Robinson William Sauey Cassville Harold Thompson Jack Ackerman C. H. Wilcox Ed Adrian Clark Wilkinson* Mrs. Mary Bultman Phillip Giesen Barron Karl Kleinpell* Robert Fladten Norman Klindt R. H. Loveland Bayfield Don Oelke A. R. WiUey Otto Teurtcher Bear Creek Chilton State Senator Gerald D. Lorge Mrs. A. R. Cook Mr. and Mrs. Gordon R. Wolff Beaver Dam Miss Louise Elser* Chippewa Falls G. W. Palmer Senator Alexander Wiley* Sister M. Theodophilus Voreck Clearwater Lake Beloit Mrs. Harriet B. Fellows Mrs. Ida Galos Mrs. Robert K. Richardson Columbus Mrs. M. J. Rutt Mrs. Earl Rueter Mrs. Carl Welty Fred Stare* Berlin Conover Mrs. B. H. Blanc* Mrs. Bertha Bennsis Black River Falls Cooksville R. W. Adams Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Porter

Vlll Cudahy Genesee Depot Leo Stonek Mrs. Howard T. Greene* Cumberland Grantsburg Curtis George Mrs. Paul Been* Leighton George Green Bay Darlington Howard Larsen Mrs. Louise Nelson John Rose Mrs. Viola Van Lishout Delavan Mrs. L. J. Totten Greenbush L. H. Cary* DePere John Torinus* Greendale George W. Latshaw Dodgeville Ivan Johanning Hales Corners G. M. Matthews* Mrs. F. Prottengeier Miss Edna Meudt* Rev. John F. Wreford Hamburg Mr. and Mrs. Edward Fromm* Dorchester Mrs. E. J. McLaughlin Hartford Mrs. Kenneth R. Pike Eagle River Mrs. Lawrence E. Norem Hartland Mrs. Robert Friend* Eau Claire Trygve Ager Hazel Green Miss Vine Miller* Rev. Albert Weittenhillen John Proctor Highland Mrs. E. W. Talford Mrs. Alma Klingele Ephraim Mrs. D. B. Dana* Hillsboro Mrs. L. D. Worden Evansville Leonard Finn Horicon C. S. Franklin Spencer Markham* Mrs. Calvin Wehy Miss Florence Wendt

Fish Creek Hudson Mrs. Hazel Buchbinder* Willis H. Miller* Fond du Lac Independence Mrs. C. W. Leonard Mrs. Carl Reinhold Hubert R. Murphy Miss Anna Stoddard Janesville Ray Brussat* Fort Atkinson Mrs. V. W. Koch* Mr. and Mrs. Paul Banker* Louis Krug Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Jones* Mrs. Grace E. McDermott Mrs. Irene V. Metke Mrs. Linda Ganger Polo* Kenosha Miss Neal Rogers* Mrs. W. E. Earl C. A. Jorgenson Galesville Mrs. Bernard Stellpflug Kewaunee Mrs. Guilford M. Wiley Mrs. Lauretta M. Moulton Kiel Mrs. Ira Baldwin* Mrs. Herman Becker Mrs. Martha Barth Mrs. Carmen Goltry Mrs. Howard K. Beale Mrs. W. D. Bird* Kohler Mrs. Kathryn Bishop A. A. Braun* Mrs. Henry D. Blake Herbert V. Kohler* Mrs. Norman Blume Burton Leavens Mrs. Louis Bridgeman Miss Olive J. Brosemer La Crosse Mrs. George S. Bryan* Mrs. A. W. Bartheld George W. Burchill State Senator Raymond C. Bice* O. Lawrence Burnette, Jr. Sister Mary Francita Miss Mildred Castle Mrs. Harriet Chamberlin Loose Mrs. George Chase Miss Dora D. Marshall* William Chittum Eugene W. Murphy* R. M. Clancy Harold C. Ristow Marshall B. Clinard Miss Eleanor Sanford* Mrs. Catherine Crocker Miss Jean Solberg Mr. and Mrs. R. R. Crosby Miss Frances Swain* Merle Curti* G. Van Steenwyk'"' Frank Custer Ladysmith Scott M. Cutlip* Miss Beulah Dahle E. M. Dahlberg Ellis H. Dana Lake Geneva Mrs. J. E. Davis Miss Ruth Allen Miss Ruth H. Davis* Miss Jane Davison Lancaster M. E. Diemer Mrs. David Crichton* Mrs. Helen Dingham Frank Holmes Gilbert H. Doane* Mrs. Minnie McMahon Leslie E. Downs Milton Melhouse David T. Dresen Mrs. Carrie Nemitz Mrs. Errol DuBois Anthony Stehura Matthew S. Dudgeon Estate Mrs. Clark Williams Walter S. Dunn, Jr.* Mrs. Ray Dvorak* Lebanon Frederic Early, Jr. Mrs. Alexander Grosenick Chester V. Easum* Mrs. Lois Elsener* Lodi R. A. Erney* Mrs. Robert 0. Bowman William T. Evjue* Mrs. William F. Groves Mrs. Ellen Fauerbach William J. Schereck David Fellman* Mrs. Mary Zoellner Leslie H. Fishel, Jr.* James Fosdick McFarland Mary Stuart Foster Estate Olaf Severson Dwight Fowler Miss Bertha R. Frautschi* Madison Walter A. Frautschi* Deane Adams A. H. Frazier Mrs. Chester F. Allen Mrs. C. B. Fritz Thomas R. Amlie J. A. Gallagher Donald W. Anderson* A. F. Gallistel* William J. Angus Miss Grace Argall* J. Currie Gibson Gerald Arts Gilson G. Glasier Mrs. Ralph Axley* Miss Margaret Gleason* Miss Josephine Balaty Miss Emma J. Glenz Reginald C. Golden Robert B. L. Murphy* Mrs. Horace R. Goodell* Dr. M. C. Neely Mrs. Lowell Hall Governor Gaylord A. Nelson Lee Hammersley Mrs. George Nelson Lucien S. Hanks John Newhouse George Hanson Bishop H. Clifford Northcott Fred Harrington* Allan E. Oakey* Mrs. Ruth Harris Miss Ilah Ostrum William Carl Haygood Miss Dorothy L. Park* Raymond J. Heilman Mrs. Cedric Parker Mrs. Ruth Heim A. W. Peterson Mr. and Mrs. John P. Heironimus Miss Eleanor Peterson William B. Hesseltine* Mrs. Russell Pett Mr. and Mrs. John W. Heuft Colonel Alfred B. Plaenert Henry Hill* Miss Doris Platt* Mrs. F. D. Hole* Harold Plumer Charles J. Holtz Felix Pollak Andrew W. Hopkins* Mrs. W. E. Probst Frank R. Horner Arthur W. Quan Mrs. Adelia Huber Mrs. Paul A. Raushenbush Mrs. Sarah Hughes Mrs. W. J. Rendall John Patrick Hunter* Oscar Rennebohm* Jack Hurlbut Henry Reynolds General Ralph M. Immell Mrs. Robert Reynolds Miss Alice Jackson* Mrs. Robert M. Rieser* Colonel Joseph W. Jackson* Mrs. Fred E. Risser* Mrs. Carl Johnson* Miss Mary Ellen Roach Miss Laura Johnson Mrs. Charles Rosa Mrs. Herbert A. Kellar Philip C. Rosenthal Fenton Kelsey, Jr. Mrs. Eldon Russell* Joe J. Kerwin Mrs. Roger B. Russell Mrs. Richard Kingston William Lewis Sachse* Mrs. W. B. Kinnamon Justin Schmiedeke Eugene Klee A. W. Schorger* Miss Margaret Isabel Knowles Miss Jennie T. Schrage* Edward Konkol Mrs. H. J. Schubert* Philip F. La Follette* H. A. Schuette* Mrs. Janet Lee Marvin Schweers Miss Jeanette Little Walter Scott* Mrs. Betty Livingston Herbert M. Sewell Mrs. Charles Lloyd David Shannon* Ralph Looper James H. Shideler James McDonald Miss Dorothy Randall Skuldt Mrs. Nola Gallagher McGann Miss Alice E. Smith* David Mack Harry Steenbock* Mrs. Julia Hanks Mailer Mrs. W. T. Stephens* Menahem Mansoor George H. Stockton Mrs. John Marshall* Dr. W. D. Stovall* Howard W. Mead Miss Eunice Stutzman Mrs. Howard Merritt R. S. Sutherland Mrs. Harold T. Meyer Milo K. Swanton* Mrs. John Meyer* Mrs. Arthur L. Tatum Forrest Middleton* Earl Thayer Luther Moll Glenn E. Thompson* William W. Morris* Edwin W. Tomlinson Mrs. Helen Anscheutz Mueller Fred B. Trenk* Miss Brynhilde Murphy* Mrs. Alice Verbeck

XI Richard Vesey* Mrs. Edith M. Brazee Arthur M. Vinje Miss Lucille Brisbane R. D. Wagner Harry C. Brockel* Russell Wenzlaff Mrs. Ben Buelow James W. Whitaker Albert Capron Mrs. James D. White Assemblyman Isaac N. Coggs William Whitney M. F. Cudahy* Mrs. Emilie Wiedenbeck* Miss Dorothea Desorieaux Benton H. Wilcox* Mrs. Ann Feldmeyer Richmond Williams W. Norman FitzGerald, jr.* John W. Winn* Mrs. Martin Fladoes* Mrs. John E. Wise* Mrs. Lewis French* Mrs. Edwin E. Witte Mrs. Joseph T. Gallagher Irvin G. Wyllie* Miss Hannah Gardner* Gene Zaske Mrs. Stanley Hauxhurst Elmer Ziegler Melvin C. Hicks Charles Zimmerman, Jr. Mrs. Alfred F. James Miss Louise Zimmerman Alfred Kieckhefer* Fred Kropf Manawa Richard E. Krug* William Sebald Phillip G. Kuehn Mrs. Frederic W. LaCroix* Manitowoc Harvey Logan R. G. Plumb* Miss Elsie Marcklein Markesan Bruce Miller Mrs. Ira W. Parker Mrs. Cannon Murray Rev. A. G. Neisman Marshall Haskell Noyes, Jr. Ray Woerpel Mr. and Mrs. John Ogden* Miss Marian G. Ogden* Mason Sylvester S. Pfefferle* Mrs. Ruth Peck Dietz John Leddy Phelan Miss Gertrude M. Puelicher* Mayville Rev. Ezra G. Roth Leo Gehrke Misses Sophia and Lillian Rust Menasha Frederic Sammond* Mrs. Eugene R. Schmidt George Banta, Jr.* Miss Marie Louise Schoenleber* Rev. Frank S. Beck Mrs. A. L. Slocum* Mrs. F. D. Hollenbeck State Senator Norman Sussman Mr. and Mrs. Silas L. Spengler* Mrs. Hampton H. Thomas Merrill Miss Lucille Trott Ray M. Anderson Mrs. Isador Van Engel Mrs. Charles P. Vogel* Middleton Mrs. William Vogel* Mrs. Arnold Griswold Frank F. Wolfgram* Mrs. John Lahm Minocqua Mrs. Harold Volk Sanford Herzog* Milton Junction Mrs. Ellen H. Hoy* Miss Rachel Salisbury* Monona Village Milwaukee Senator William Proxmire Niles W. Allen Roger Axford Monroe Miss Mary J. Baez Miss Grace Byers Frederick M. Benkovic Miss Lena Conrad John Benson Rev. Glen H. Ridnour*

xu Mount Horeh Don Diver Claude Egerntaffer Mrs. Fred R. Stienecker Asher Hobson Portage Edward Loeffel W. Horace Johnston Neenah Mrs. J. R. McCarthy* Mrs. James Bergstrom* Port Edwards Mrs. Darell Buchanan F. George Kilp Mrs. C. B. Clark* Miss H. Elizabeth Mott Potosi Mrs. John E. Westgor Art Cardy New Glarus Poynette Mrs. Wilma Babler Mrs. R. J. Hadden* New London Prairie du Chien Dr. F. J. Pfeifer* Clarence Karnopp Mr. and Mrs. Fred J. Widenbeck Estate Fred A. Schrader New Richmond Mrs. Eda Herold Racine Lt. Gov. Warren P. Knowles Mrs. Jesse Baillie* Bert L. Calkins* Oconomowoc Mrs. James C. Cook Mrs. C. W. Bloedow* Walter Kuemmerlein* Mrs. Orton Lee Prime John Prasch Rodney Shaw Earl Roethke Charles H. Simmons* Mrs. David Verheim* Random Lake Ray Scholler Oconto James Peshek Rhinelander Loyal Peterson Henry Freund Omro Richland Center Van E. Jackson Marion Dillon Sterling Stearns Clarence M. Herbert Oregon F. W. Lawrence Harry E. Wheeler Miss Alice Doyle Al Gasner Ripon Oshkosh Robert A. Gehrke* Mrs. Robert P. Boardman* John H. Wilson* William Cowen George P. Nevitt* River Falls Mrs. Georgia West Rev. John W. Harris* Miss Annabel Wood John E. Lankford Pine River Rush Lake R. 0. Ebert* John Schrader B. 0. Webster Platteville St. Germain E. R. Barden Henry C. Weisse A. W. Kopp* St. Nasianz Victor E. Nylin Victor A. Miller Plymouth Oren Adams St. Croix Falls Walter A. Bade* William D. Barnard

xiu Sauk City Waterloo Miss Clara Merkel Arthur R. Setz Meta Meyer Estate Watertown Sheboygan 0. F. Schwefel* Ronald Ahrens Miss Mary Denn Waukesha Walter J. Kohler, Jr.* G. 0. Banting* John Stranberg Mrs. Betty Gallagher Hanson Walter J. Vollrath* Waunakee Sheboygan Falls Mrs. Harvey Charles Peterson Henry C. Prange* Waupun Slinger Mrs. Martha Gunnison Mrs. James Dickinson Edward W. Hooker Miss Edith Scott* South Milwaukee Wausau Holger Jacobsen Mrs. Mike Harrington Stevens Point John Landon August Larsen Wauwatosa G. J. Gibson* Milton F. Burmaster Assemblyman Norman L. Myhra Paul Butzin Les Woerpel William J. McCauley Milo Richter* Sturgeon Bay Mrs. Max Schmitt Mrs. Jessie Chase Mrs. M. L. Wilcox Superior West Allis Mr. and Mrs. Given P. Fisher William A. Bitters West Bend Thiensville Herbert P. Schowalter* James W. Martin Mrs. B. C. Ziegler* Tomahawk West De Pere Edward MacDonald James Hughes

Two Rivers Westfield Robert L. Broucek W. D. Fuller Lee H. Gregory Weyauwega Nelson Le Clair Frank Hoffner William Mueller Miss Bernice Zander Whitefish Bay Miss Marie Gottschalk Union Grove Byron Paine Mrs. Marion A. Loomis Whitewater Verona Miss Catherine Grossman Mrs. Elmer Gordon Miss Alice Warner Winneconne Viroqua George Tippler Misses Mary and Margarette Morse Mrs. Clinton W. Nuzum* Wisconsin Dells Miss Miriam Bennett* Walworth Jack Olson Mrs. Genevieve Barth Miss Bernadine Smith Ray Wisconsin Rapids Wittenberg Henry P. Baldwin* Philip L. Maurer Miss Parthenia Fitch Wyoming Matt Knedle Mrs. Stanton Mead Cheyenne Miss Jean Nash Mrs. Glenn Oliver Mrs. S. Parsons Sheridan Mrs. James F. Reddick William White

Foreign

Canada Sweden Ralph L. McCall, Acme, Alberta Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Mack, Stockholm England Jack Niblett, Smithwick, Staffs. Japan Switzerland Mrs. Barbara Leonard Reynolds, Eba, Hiroshima Mr. and Mrs. James M. Reed, Geneva

Organizations

California New York San Diego New York Union Title Insurance Company The Macmillan Company Singer Manufacturing Company Illinois Chicago Wisconsin Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Adams Railroad Adams County State Bank International Harvester Coinpany Oscar Mayer & Company Amery What America Thinks, Inc. Union State Bank Indiana Appleton Appleton State Bank Beech Grove First National Bank of Appleton National Greenback Party Ashland Indianapolis Northern State Bank* Lilly Endowment, Inc. The Union National Bank Kentucky Athens The Bank of Athens Louisville Louisville Courier-Journal Baraboo Herman's Restaurant Michigan P. & B. Auto Parts Lansing Barron Michigan Historical Commission* Bank of Barron Beaver Dam Cuba City American National Bank Cuba City State Bank Beloit Cumberland Second National Bank Northwestern State Bank United Steelworkers of America, Local Darlington #1533 First National Bank of Darlington Berlin Lafayette County Historical Society Farmers & Merchants Bank DeForest First National Bank of Berlin DeForest Morrisonville Bank Black Earth Delavan Black Earth State Bank Citizens Bank of Delavan

Black River Falls Dodgeville Jackson County Bank Strong's Bank Bonduel Dou.^nuin Bonduel State Bank Dousman State Bank Brodhead Durand Green County Bank The Security National Bank Brooklyn Eau Claire Brooklyn State Bank American National Bank* Cambria Eldorado Cambria State Bank Eldorado State Bank Cambridge Elkhorn Bank of Cambridge State Bank of Elkhorn Cameron Evansville Wisconsin Association of Vocational- Union Bank & Trust Company Agricultural Instructors Fall River Cassville Rio-Fall River Union Bank Badger State Bank Fennimore Cazenovia First State Bank State Bank of Cazenovia Fond du Lac Chetek St. Agnes School of Nursing Indianhead State Bank Wisconsin State Student Nurses Association Clintonville Fort Atkinson Clintonville National Bank Citizens State Bank Dairyman's State Bank First National Bank

Collins Franksville Collins State Bank Bank of Franksville Cottage Grove Freedom Cottage Grove State Bank Freedom State Bank

Cross Plains Grafton State Bank of Cross Plains Grafton State Bank

XVI Grantsburg Business & Professional Women's Club First Bank of Grantsburg Commercial State Bank Democratic Party of Wisconsin Gleason League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Gleason State Bank Madison Art Guild Madison Civil War Round Table Green Bay Madison Federation of Labor Green Bay and Western Railroad Madison Literary Society West Side State Bank Madison Typographical Union Wisconsin State Bank Mautz Paint & Varnish Foundation Wisconsin State Society, Daughters of the Ray-0-Vac Company American Colonists Republican Party of Wisconsin State Medical Society of Wisconsin Green Valley University of Wisconsin State Bank of Green Valley Wisconsin Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Hartford Wisconsin Civil War Centennial Commis­ First National Bank of Hartford sion Wisconsin Council of Churches Hubert Wisconsin Journalism Conference State Bank of Hilbert Wisconsin State Council of Carpenters Zonta Club of Madison Hillsboro Farmers State Bank Manitowoc First National Bank Horicon Manitowoc Savings Bank* Horicon State Bank Markesan Janesville Farmers Bank Janesville Chapter, D.A.R. Parker Pen Company Marshfield Central State Bank Jefferson Citizens National Bank Jefferson County Bank Mayville Juneau State Bank of Mayville Citizens Bank of Juneau Mazomanie Kenosha Peoples State Bank Kenosha National Bank Menasha Ladysmith Banta Company Foundation, Inc.* Security State Bank Menasha Wooden Ware Company* Lake Mills Menomonee Falls Greenwoods State Bank Farmers & Merchants Bank

Lancaster Merrill Lancaster State Bank Lincoln County Bank

Madison Milwaukee Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher American State Bank Workmen, Local #538 City Bank and Trust Company American Institute of the History of First Wisconsin Foundation, Inc. Pharmacy Kilbourn State Bank Borden Company Marine Foundation, Inc. Boy Scout Troop 20 Marshall & Ilsley Bank Foundation, Inc. Louisa M. Brayton Chapter, D.A.R. Milwaukee County Historical Society* Milwaukee Western Bank Mound City Bank Northern Bank State Bank of Platteville Peckham Jr. High School Southgate National Bank Port Washington Stanley and Polly Stone Foundation* First National Bank of Port Washington West Side Bank Potosi Wisconsin AFL-CIO Wisconsin Press Photographers' Associa­ Potosi State Bank tion Prairie du Chien Wisconsin State Bank* Peoples State Bank Wisconsin State Dental Society Schlitz Foundation, Inc. Preble Preble State Bank Mondavi First National Bank Princeton Farmers-Merchants National Bank Monroe Princeton Times-Republic First National Bank of Monroe Racine Monticello American Bank & Trust Company Mindes & Durtschi S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. Mt. Calvary Johnson Wax Foundation North Side Bank Mt. Calvary State Bank Reedshurg Neenah Farmers & Merchants Bank The John Nelson Bergstrom Art Center and Reedsburg Bank Museum National Manufacturers Bank Ripon First National Bank of Ripon Neillsville Ripon State Bank Neillsville Bank Rhinelander Neshkoro First National Bank of Rhinelander Farmers Exchange Bank Rosholt New Auburn State Bank of Rosholt Bank of New Auburn Seymour Norwalk First National Bank Community State Bank Seymour State Bank

Oakfield Shawano Bank of Oakfield Citizens State Bank Oostburg Sheboygan Oostburg State Bank Sheboygan Clearing House Association Oregon Shell Lake Bank of Oregon Shell Lake State Bank Peshtigo Sherwood Peshtigo State Bank Sherwood State Bank Pigeon Falls Shorewood Pigeon Falls State Bank North Shore State Bank Platteville Sparta First National Bank of Platteville Farmers National Bank of Sparta Spring Green Washburn Farmers State Bank Washburn State Bank Stevens Point Waterloo Citizens National Bank Farmers & Merchants State Bank Thorp Waukesha Peoples Exchange Bank Waukesha State Bank Two Rivers Wausau Bank of Two Rivers Wausau Valley Trust Company Valders Wauwatosa Valders State Bank Wauwatosa State Bank

Verona West Allis Bank of Verona West Allis State Bank Viola West Bend Farmers State Bank First National Bank of West Bend Viroqua Weyauwega First National Bank of Viroqua State Bank of Viroqua Farmers and Merchants Bank Walworth Whitehall Walworth State Bank John 0. Melby & Co. Bank

Donors to the Mass Communications History Center

Connecticut Michigan New Canaan East Lansing Mrs. H. T. Webster Fred S. Siebert District of Columbia Oklahoma Washington Tulsa Marquis Childs Lester W. Lindow Theodore Viehman Edward P. Morgan Edgar Ansel Mowrer New Jersey United States Information Agency Camden Illinois M. C. Batsel Chicago Fairhaven I. Cr Louis P. Lochner Wallace Meyer Clifton Utley New York Maryland Massapequa Chevy Chase Edward H. Preston John M. Baer Mrs. Mary E. Preston Port Washington Fredric March Edward Hunter Joseph C. Mathews John Scott New York Charles A. Siepmann William H. Baldwin Frank Silvernail Wade Barnes Otto D. Tolischus S. N. Behrman American Committee for Liberation Robert L. Bliss Associated Press Lawrence Blochman National Broadcasting Company Kermit Bloomgarden The New York Newspaper Women's Club Cecil Brown Overseas Press Club Charles Collingwood The Playwrights' Company Albert S. Crockett The Research Institute of America Miss Dorothy Dignam Mrs. Ruth Goodman Goetz White Plains H. V. Kaltenborn John Fischer

Reading room of the Society's library. In honor of Wisconsin's distinguished historian of the frontier

WISCONSIN WITNESS

TO Frederick Jackson Turner

The contribution of Portage, Wiscon­ sin, to America's understanding of itself A COLLECTION of ESSAYS on ivas Frederick Jackson Turner, born November 14, 1861. the HISTORIAN and the THESIS

Compiled hy O. LAWRENCE BURNETTE, JR.

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

MADISON 1%1

Wisconsin Witness to Frederick Jackson Turner TABLE OF CONTE.NTS

Fish I The Frontier A World Problem Schafer / Turner's Frontier Philosophy In observance of the centennial, a group Seltels I Frederick Jackson Turner and the New Deal Schafer / Turner's Autobiographic Letter to of essays on Turner and the frontier thesis Constance Lindsay Skinner Schafer I Some Facts Bearing on the Safety-Valve Theory has been compiled from the pages of the ?A(i(ni I Little Known Fragments of Turner's Writings WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY and pub­ Craven / Frederick Jackson Turner, Historian Pierson / American Historians and the lished in book form, as a Wisconsin wit­ Frontier Hypothesis in 1941 (I) Pierson / American Historians and the ness to its most famous historian. Frontier Hypothesis in 1941 (U) The compiler of these essays is the Book Burkharl / The Turner Thesis: A Historian's Controversy Curti I Frederick Jackson Turner Editor of the Society. Published in December, 1961. Two

hundred and twenty pages. Price: four THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN dollars. MADISON To promote a wider appreciation of the American heritage The Purpose with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement, of this and dissemination of knowledge of the history of Wisconsin Society shall be and of the Middle West.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin 816 State Street Maciison 6, Wisconsin Second class postage paid Return postage guaranteed Madison, Wisconsin